


Sounds Like Something Breaking

by Stilienski



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alive Laura Hale, Alpha Laura Hale, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Dark, Emissary in Training Stiles Stilinski, Eventual Happy Ending, Hale Family Feels, M/M, Slow Build Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Stalking, Stress Baking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-31
Updated: 2017-02-25
Packaged: 2018-09-13 16:13:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 23,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9131839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stilienski/pseuds/Stilienski
Summary: What if Laura became the alpha instead of Derek? Surely a lot of things would be handled better if the lives of a bunch of teenagers didn't depend on an emotionally constipated Sourwolf. With Stiles on their side as a new but promising emissary, the pack has the potential to become stronger than ever.But with hunters on one side, and some bad supernatural stuff on the other, the pack will have to fight tooth and nail to survive.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Whovie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whovie/gifts).



> Part of the Secret Santa gift exchange. (this is a wip, I know.... I'm sorry, but you can also look at it as a gift that just keeps on giving? maybe?)
> 
> Please check the tags before reading new chapters, I may add some as I see fit.  
> For now I'm going to try to update once every two weeks (no whining! I also have school to worry about!). So the next update should be on January 14th.
> 
> A huuuuuge thanks to [xlogophile](http://archiveofourown.org/users/xlogophile/works) for listening to me whine about this fic for over a year now.

Twenty-nine days. That’s how long it’s been. It’s been twenty-nine days since she saw him move, since she heard him talk, since she watched him leave.

_ “I’ll see you tonight, sweetheart.” _

_ “Be home before dinner for once?” _

_ “I promise I’ll try.” Oh she’d heard that one before. _

For once a police cruiser had actually rolled in the driveway before dinner. Fear had gripped her heart as soon as she noticed it wasn’t his. A knock on the door. Bad news. That was almost a month ago, and she had barely moved from his side since then.

It’s not like she never considered the possible dangers of his job. He was in law enforcement, of course it wasn’t as safe as a boring desk job. Never had she thought anything would actually happen to her husband in this town though. Beacon Hills, a small town where everyone knew each other somehow. Sure she was aware of the  _ special _ threats this place had to offer, but that didn’t have anything to do with her husband. He should have been safe here, they should have been safe here. Safe enough to start a family. Safe enough to be excited about the pregnancy test that was waiting, now forgotten, in the bathroom cabinet back at home.

For twenty-nine days she had been waiting for… anything. The twitch of a finger or even the twitch of an eyelid,  _ anything _ . She was going crazy in this hospital room. At first the steady beeping of the machines had been calming. A sign that his vitals were okay. That even after what happened he was still relatively okay. His heart was still beating. He was still alive. And the machines made sure his lungs kept doing their job. But after the first few days the beeping had seemed to gradually become louder and louder. Impossibly loud. And now it was taking over her every thought.

She couldn’t go home, because she couldn’t imagine the silence there to be less deafening than the noise here. The only place she really wanted to be right now was with a friend. A friend she hadn’t spoken to since college, but the only one who would not only understand what she was going through but who would also know a solution. She’d know how to help.

“That’s my husband we’re talking about! That’s my husband who’s lying in that hospital bed! That’s my husband who needs your help! Why won’t you help me?!”

“I would, you know I would if I could! But we don’t turn people without their consent. It’s been decades since we last turned a human who wasn’t part of the pack, and that was only with her explicit consent and you know that.” The look in her eyes was far from calm, there was so much regret on her face. She seemed just as helpless as her begging friend.

“I’m not asking you to turn him! I’m asking you to help him! There’s more out there than people like you, you’re the one who told me that I should be wary of the dark. You’re the one who told me that even though you may not lurk in the shadows, others do. You can’t tell me that and then try to convince me there’s not even a possibility that some of these shadows can actually do something to help! You can’t tell me that there’s so much bad out there and then say there’s no good to even it out!”

“With these creatures there’s always a price to pay. A price that’s usually not worth the gain. I am telling you, with your best interests at heart, you do not want to ask for help in the shadows, for the things they ask in return will bring darkness to your life. A darkness far greater than the one you’re facing now.”

“I am losing my husband! I am losing the father of my child! There is nothing darker than that!”

“You have no idea.”

“Then give me one! I came here for your help and so far I’ve only gotten vague threats to my life!” She knew she wasn’t being fair, she knew she had to calm down but that was easier said than done.

She took a deep breath, ready to try one more time. “Is there really no one you can think of who can help me? What about… what about witches, do those exist? Do you know one?”

“I know one, but healing someone with magic is never a good idea. Witches can only do some temporary fixes. Fairies will cheat you with words and make it so they don’t have to hold up their end of the bargain. Demons…” she was starting to regret even saying the word. “Demons can get it done but like I said, you do not want to go there. The price will be too high. They deal in souls and firstborns and first loves and.... Don’t make a deal. No matter how good it sounds you will regret it when it’s time to pay.” Nothing had ever scared her more than the determination in her friend’s eyes.

“How?”

“No. As much as I want to help you, as much as I want to help your husband, I can’t be the one who’s responsible for ruining your and possibly his life in the long run.”

“You know I’ll find it anyway.”

“I know you will, that doesn’t mean I’m willing to be a part of this. Deal with demons all you want. But don’t come here when it’s time for you to pay up, because even a whole pack of werewolves has nothing on a hellhound. Make this deal, and we’re done, there will be nothing more I can do for you. I won’t let your deluded choice bring danger to my pack.”

Five days later, in the small town of Beacon Hills, the papers told the amazing story of a deputy’s miraculous recovery.

 


	2. Into the Woods

 

Stiles only had a couple of minutes to feel bad about leaving his best friend out there in the woods after being the one to drag Scott out there in the first place. Come on, they said there was a monster roaming the woods of Beacon Hills, how awesome would it be if he and Scott were the ones to find the stray dog that freaked out some old lady on her walk? Maybe his dad would even let him keep the puppy!

Of course, his dad had to be the one to respond to some bogus monster call in the middle of the night, thus catching Stiles in the woods. Really, Scott was lucky the sheriff hadn’t seen him. And how hard could it be for Scott to find his own way home? He’d be fine and they’d laugh about this in school come morning.

Still, the cold had to suck, and Scott would have to walk home now… so of course Stiles still felt a little bad. That was until his dad was driving him home through the woods and Stiles saw something red flash between the trees. He followed the red dots in the rearview mirror as his dad drove on none the wiser. Just as they were at the very edge of the forest, Stiles saw some huge-ass animal with red eyes run across the path. No one could expect Stiles to waste brain power on feeling guilty about leaving Scott in the woods when he was too busy trying to get the sheriff to turn around.

“Oh my god, dad! I swear I saw it! It was huge! You have to turn back and call animal control! What the fuck was that thing?” Seriously, no space in his brain left to feel guilty, he had to figure out what kind of animal’s eyes flashed red and had such an enormous stature.

“Stiles, shut up!”  _ Oh boy _ … Stiles almost snapped his neck, turning from staring out the rear window to face his very very very pissed off father. “I can’t believe you’re still listening in on the police radios. After what happened last time…” The sheriff was gripping the steering wheel so tight, his knuckles turned white and the leather creaked in his hold. “You have to stop doing this. Do you hear me?”

“Dad, it was a monster call, come on! I wanted to find the huge cat or the fluffy pup—“

“You don’t know that!” The sheriff pinched the bridge of his nose, clearly fed up with the whole ordeal. “You don’t know if it was just a cat or a dog. It could have been a mountain lion or god knows what. You can not show up to crime scenes anymore.”

Okay, Stiles could understand where his dad was coming from, because last time he went to the location that was called in on the police radio, he may have ended up in the middle of a shoot-out. In his defense though, no one said anything about the suspect carrying a gun. And Stiles doesn’t just go around assuming all suspected bank robbers carry guns at all times, much less semi-automatics, that would be very prejudiced. He just wanted to be there in case the suspect his dad apprehended actually turned out to be the guy who pulled off such a complicated heist about two weeks before.

“Stiles, I know you worry about me whenever I’m on shift, but… I can’t have you out there putting yourself in danger again, do you understand? I’m out there with a team that has my back and a weapon to defend myself. When you’re out there just showing up you’re taking unnecessary risks, not only risking yourself, but me and every deputy that suddenly has to worry about a teenager showing up in the middle of a goddamn shoot-out.”

“I…” Stiles started, but he really didn’t have a proper answer for all of that. “Okay. No more listening in on your radio.”

*****

Stiles seriously couldn’t believe his bad luck. Scott had been bitten by a wolf without him. How unfair was that? Because clearly it hadn’t actually been a wolf, there were no wolves in California. Scott had needed him there to identify the animal and Stiles hadn’t been there, just because his dad was still hung up about the little shoot-out incident.

He told Scott as much. “I can’t believe you found the monster without me!” It came out sounding appropriately accusing.

“What? Stiles, the thing could have mauled and killed me! You left me alone to be eaten by a freaking wolf!”

“Not a wolf, Scotty, it can’t have been a wolf, I literally just explained this to you.” He loved Scott, really he did, Scott was his bro, but oh god was he slow on the uptake sometimes. “And that’s completely beside the point anyway. It was entirely my idea to go monster hunting, I was gracious enough to take you along for the ride and then you just go ahead and find the thing without me! That’s just not fair! At all!”

Scott looked at Stiles as if he’d grown two heads. “I can’t believe you’re more concerned about not having seen the wolf than about your best friend! You know this thing hurts, right? You could at least show a little bit of sympathy!”

“Well you should have run faster then.” Stiles simply stated before he rushed to follow Lydia Martin inside the school building.

“I’ve got asthma, you dickhead!” Scott retorted before moving to smack Stiles in the head with his history book. Some teacher in the hallway shouted about language before they arrived to their lockers. “Which is why you’re coming with me to the woods today.”

“What? No, the Mets are playing tonight!”

“Too bad, I lost my inhaler last night which is your fault. You’re coming with me to look for it.”

“But…  _ the Mets!”  _ Scott should know the Mets were holy in the Stilinski household, he couldn’t seriously expect Stiles to give that up.

“Fine, if you’d rather I died because I don’t have my inhaler….” Oh and that pout was just not playing fair…

****

“What do you mean it disappeared? Scott, bitemarks from a feral animal don’t just disappear throughout the day. Are you sure you checked the right side?” Stiles rolled his eyes at the fact that apparently Scott thought this was the best joke ever. Like Stiles would actually fall for a bite mark disappearing all of a sudden.

“Stiles, stop doing that! I’m not kidding! Look!” And just like that, Scott lifted his shirt while they were standing in the school hallway… right in front of the door to the girl’s bathroom. Which was not a good place to take off your shirt. Stiles was just about to tell Scott as much, but then noticed the lack of bloody bandage and the lack of…. anything really. His friend’s torso looked as unblemished as ever.

“What the fuck?” Stiles hissed just as Scott finally pulled his shirt back down to cover himself up.

“I know!”

“So… what? You just healed that thing in a couple of hours? What the fuck!” Stiles had seen the bite, because of course Scott had shown him the disgusting thing first thing in the morning. But Scott being his usual disgusting self wasn’t the point. The point is that Stiles had seen that bite mark and that was way too ugly to just heal in a couple of days, never mind in a couple of hours.

“I’m freaking out, Stiles!” Right, as if it was still necessary to mention that. As if Stiles wasn’t having a massive freak-out himself. But if there was one thing Stiles was good at, it was ignoring a problem till it just went away.

So he put his hands on Scott’s shoulders and squeezed in what he hoped was an encouraging manner. “Okay, buddy, you’re going to have to suck it up for a couple more hours.”

“But—“

“Nope. I don’t want to hear it. You’re going to suck it up till the end of the school day, then we’ll go look for your inhaler and we’ll figure it out.” Scott looked as if he was about to protest again so Stiles just slapped his hand over Scott’s mouth. “I said no, Scott! Suck it up. There are millions of people who would kill for super healing. There are worse things in life. Like the consequences of being late to Harris’ class.”

*****

Stiles was still very much ignoring the lack of a wound on Scott’s side by the time they finally made it to the clearing where Scott thinks he dropped his inhaler. To be honest, he couldn’t believe Scott was making him search the freaking forest for a little inhaler. This was impossible.

“Scott, are you sure it was here?” He didn’t even let Scott finish his answer before continuing, “The preserve is a big place, I know that I would barely recognize anything at night, so there’s no shame in admitting that you have no freaking clue where you dropped it, okay?”

“What? Stiles I dropped it here, I know! The wolf—“

“Not a wolf, Scotty, for god’s sake.” Stiles interrupted from where he was lying on his stomach. Which was really a much better vantage point to look for something that had fallen on the ground covered in dry leaves.

“—came from there by that tree and I tried to run but I fell down because I hadn’t seen that root sticking out.” Scott pointed out both the tree and the root in question. “Also, if you didn’t think you’d recognize anything here at night, then why would you drag me out here when there’s a monster roaming the woods?”

“Well for one, I didn’t think there would be an actual monster, okay?” He sighed and heaved himself upright before finally looking at Scott. “I’m sorry. Not for dragging you out here, because you know it could have been fun if we found a puppy and it would have been a great story to tell everyone if we’d actually found a monster together. But I am sorry for leaving you out here on your own. Fuck, it could have been a lot worse too, Scott. You lost your freaking  _ inhaler _ . If you’d been a bit more freaked out about what

happened or a bit more angry about me leaving you out here to fend for yourself, you could have had an asthma attack and…. fuck. I’m sorry, bro. I’m supposed to always have your back and—“

“This is private property.” Stiles was so startled about that voice just suddenly being there that he turned around way too quickly and fell against Scott’s side.

“Oh my god.” He put a hand over his own racing heart because really… oh my god. First of all the shock at being intruded upon while he was apologizing. Second of all, how the fuck did neither of them hear that guy coming? With the dry leaves and the branches and the fact that they were in a freaking forest, the guy’s approach should have made a lot of noise. And third,  _ good god in the heavens above _ , too hot. “Yeah well, this is a private moment.” The way-too-hot guy’s eyebrows lifted at that.

Still, Stiles thought it wasn’t all that bad of a reply. Definitely when you took into account that his brain was more occupied by the way the guy’s arms and shoulders filled out that black leather jacket. Or how impossibly sharp his jaw was. Or how his eyebrows were like the sexiest thick black caterpillars Stiles had ever seen. Really, who knew eyebrows could be a turn-on?

“I’m sorry, sir,” Scott apologized and punched Stiles’ shoulder for being rude and clumsy. “I… erm… well I got kind of lost last night and I dropped my inhaler somewhere around here. I didn’t know it was private property. Would you mind it very much if we look for a little bit longer?” Stiles couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He squinted incredulously at his best friend. Why the fuck did he call that guy ‘sir’, he wasn’t that much older than them, surely. And why was he being so freaking polite?

“Is this the one?” Another voice interrupted Scott’s groveling session as a female version of the tall dark and handsome dude suddenly appeared from behind a tree. How had two people managed to sneak up on them like that?

“No, that must be one of those other inhalers from one of those other people who always lose their inhalers in the middle of the forest.” Stiles sassed back, because that’s what Stiles does when he’s under any kind of emotional distress. The emotional distress in this case being fear because something was definitely up with those two weirdos sneaking up to them.

Okay, so maybe it wasn’t his best move to sass two possible serial killers who just cornered them in the middle of nowhere. The tall dark and handsome girl tilted her head slightly to the right and squinted at him, clearly not happy with that answer. But the tall dark and handsome dude let out a snort as if he was actually amused with the whole situation. And maybe he was, maybe seeing his female counterpart killing skinny teenage boys was his idea of a good time.

“You were both in the woods last night,” the girl said, which was probably a good sign. She kept the conversation going, clearly not wanting to skin them alive just yet. “But only one of you got bitten.” Well that was not a good sign, because really  _ what the fuck? _

“Yeah…. I think this is our cue to leave. Come on, Scotty.” But instead of taking this very obvious cue, Scott just kept standing there. “Scott, time to go.” Stiles said, more pressingly this time.

“If you leave you’ll never find out what bit you.” The girl sing-songed.

“Scott, we’ll figure it out,” Stiles said as he pushed against his friend’s shoulder, really just wanting to get out of there.

“No, Stiles, I want to hear this.”

“Look, it won’t matter that they tell you about it if you end up being their dinner.” Stiles hissed, making sure to speak softly enough that only Scott would be able to hear him. “I’m not kidding, Scott, we need to get the fuck out of here.”

“You’ve got pretty good instincts, we’re pretty dangerous folk. But you’re wrong about us wanting to harm you. We really need to talk about that bite, sooner rather than later. I’m willing to do it on neutral ground if that would make you more comfortable.”

“Yeah… how about no,” Stiles said, trying to stall whatever was going on. “We don’t even know who you guys are, and honestly, I’m not all too keen to find out either. So how about you give my friend his inhaler back, we get off your property and you stay the fuck away from us?” While Stiles was talking he had started pushing Scott backwards, trying to find a way out.

“Look, Stiles, you seem to be a lot less stupid than you look,” If he wasn’t feeling like he was seconds away from being ripped to shreds by that girl, he would have punched her for that comment. “So here’s how it is. Your friend wasn’t bitten by a wolf—“

“Yes, I know that! I’ve been telling him that from the start.” Stiles exclaimed, frustrated at having to repeat himself all the time. If everyone would just listen to him for once.

“You know?” Oh so tall dark and handsome the male edition found his voice again.

“Yes, I know!”

“Well then you also know that he needs an alpha. We’re working on catching the one who gave him the bite, when we do, I’ll—“

_ Wait what? _ “An alpha?” Stiles asked.

“Yes. He won’t be able to control himself during the full moon, an alpha will help—“ After that it was all just white noise for Stiles as he finally put the impossible pieces together. Stiles ignored the fact that Scott was tugging on his sleeve, trying to get his attention or maybe to finally leave.

“A werewolf.” Stiles finally said, interrupting whatever the girl had been talking about.

“You said you knew!”  _ Oh boy _ , tall dark and handsome female was clearly fed up.

“Ye-es!” Stiles took a couple of quick steps towards the girl again, because he too was getting fed up with all this crazy talk. “I knew he couldn’t have been bitten by a wolf! There are no wolves in California!”

“Stiles…,” Scott’s voice came from behind him. “I think we should go…”

“Oh,  _ now _ you think we should go? When the people, who I deemed a threat right from the moment they apparated out of thin air, are suddenly starting to talk about you being a werewolf? That’s the point where you go  _ ‘oh yeah, maybe we should leave this place because there’s really no one around in these woods to hear us scream when these crazy people start cutting us into tiny little pieces _ ’? Next time you should listen as soon as I tell you something. How many more times do I need to explain to you that you’re the pretty one and I’m the smart one and therefore you get to be the one who gets us into nightclubs and I get to be the one who you should listen to… always!” He was too busy poking Scott’s chest violently to realize that they were still in the presence of possible serial killers.

“I like him, Derek, I’m keeping him.” But that was definitely enough to snap him out of that.

“Erm… No! No you’re not!” Stiles shouted back.

“Look,” the girl started again, “You’ve been very annoying so far and we haven’t killed you yet, we’re not going to.”

“You just said you liked me!” But the girl just ignored him.

“I’m Laura Hale, this is my brother Derek. There, now we’re not strangers anymore, does that help?” Stiles tried to ignore all the memories of the Hales that started flooding his mind.

“That depends. Do you still think there’s such a thing as werewolves?”

“Do you?” And as she asked it, she made her eyes flash a vibrant gold and she bared her way too pointy teeth. Well that certainly stopped Stiles from giving any kind of sassy reply.

Instead he thought that “You used to babysit me.” was a great answer to go for.

“I liked you better when you couldn’t talk,” Laura agreed with a nod, but Derek finally made a noise again (he didn’t tend to do that often as far as Stiles could tell) as he sighed and stepped forward, clearly wanting to move this whole conversation along.

“You were bitten by our uncle,” He simply explained to Scott. “He was out of control, but we’re dealing with it.”

“You’re dealing with it? You’re dealing with your uncle, who’s out of control and bit Scott? Your uncle who is also a werewolf or just a cannibal then? So what? You’ve always just been one happy swarm of werewolves living in the woods of Beacon Hills?” Oh that was very much the wrong thing to say.

“Till the fire, yes.” Laura said with a face that knew exactly how cringe-worthy that reply must be to hear.

“Your uncle… was catatonic. So, it took him six years but apparently that werewolf healing can do a lot more than heal a little bite.” Stiles didn’t wait for confirmation and just rambled on about his other assumptions, his mouth almost as fast as his mind was gathering its thoughts. “He bit Scott, and apparently turned him into a mythical creature, which makes your uncle the alpha you talked about earlier. An alpha is the strongest one, the boss, right? So it’s you two against an out-of-control superwerewolf.”

“Not exactly ‘against’,” Laura answered with a wicked smile on her lips.

“Cut it out with the villain act already,” Derek said gruffly. “We already found Peter. He’s in a secure location,” Stiles scoffed at that, he’d seen enough cop show episodes with witness protection gone wrong. There’s no such thing as a secure location. “He’s not in his right mind, the last thing he remembers is the fire—”

“Which does not make it okay for him to just go turning people into werewolves willy-nilly!”

“—and his wife and kids dying.” Derek finished and fixed Stiles with a glare. “All he’s thinking about is rebuilding a pack, his very base instincts as an alpha. We got Deaton involved and he’s helping us get through to him. In the meantime, Scott, you should know that the shift is going to be slow since we’re still a long way away from the full moon. Peter is technically your alpha right now, but if all goes to plan, that power will shift to Laura soon.”

After that being mentioned, Laura looked a lot more formal and serious all of a sudden. “We’re going to sort out Peter first. But you can always come to us when you need help. It’s… it’s wrong that this was forced on you, but it doesn’t have to be a bad thing. You’ll become stronger, faster, you’ll be able to heal a lot quicker and you’ll become part of a pack. Our pack.” Stiles thought she’d make a pretty good saleswoman.

“Okay, I get that you guys have other things to deal with right now, but we’re discussing this at length when the stuff has been dealt with. You’re going to tell us in detail all the pro’s and con’s to being a werewolf and you’re going to explain why he’s suddenly your new pack pet.” Stiles demanded.

“We don’t just let people in our pack for no reason, it’s an  _ honor _ .” Derek was practically growling by the end of that sentence. Stiles never thought he’d be so touchy.

“Yeah, that’s what every cult says,” Stiles scoffed. Then thought he’d better be at least a little bit nice to the growly mad werewolf. “Look at this from our point of view. Two strangers corner us in the middle of the woods, flash their eyes and fangs at us and tell us that not only werewolves are a real thing, but hey, guess what Scott turned into last night? So, what’s going to happen is that you’re going to give him time to process this and then you’re going to explain everything and give him options for if he decides that he’s not ready to join a pack of strangers.”

“You do not get to call the shots on this, you little shit. None of this is even any of your business, so why don’t you just—“ But by simply saying her brother’s name, Laura called him off.

“You’re right.” She said, before finally giving over the inhaler and a piece of paper with her number on it.

“We’ll meet up later, if anything’s wrong or… too much you call me. Text me so I have your numbers too.”

While Scott stood there with a look on his face that clearly meant he had no clue what just happened, Stiles’ heart was racing, because that was the wildest Friday night he’d ever had in his whole life. And at the end of it, a hot girl even gave him her number!


	3. It's Chemistry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again to my lovely betas [JungleJelly](http://archiveofourown.org/users/JungleJelly/pseuds/JungleJelly) and [xlogophile](http://archiveofourown.org/users/xlogophile/works) (you should probably dive into their works/recs too, because JungleJelly's fics are amazing and xlogophile's recs are to die for)

Monday mornings were awful. Especially when Stiles had barely slept all weekend. Because werewolves were apparently a thing now. A thing that was quickly taking over his life. And it’s not a thing that’s all that easy to do research on. Because werewolves. No one actually expects them to be real (well duh), so most of the information on the internet is fantasy novels, fantasy games, and weird Supernatural fanfics. Which Stiles totally did knot read.

And now, after having stayed up till two in the morning, he was on his way to pick up his newly bitten werewolf buddy. Anxious to see if maybe Scott had heard anything from Laura or Derek. Though Derek didn’t seem to be very good at the whole communicating thing, so Laura was probably way more likely.

Stiles had been waiting by his phone, hoping for an update on the crazy out-of-control alpha werewolf all weekend, while trying to come up with a way to tell his dad that maybe silver bullets would be a good idea from now on. Or maybe just keeping out of the woods altogether was a good idea, because guess what, dad? That monster call was totally legit. Yeah, he hadn’t yet figured out how to tell the sheriff any of this. Which was not making his stress levels any better. Even to Stiles’ normal standards, he was very jittery today.

He waited impatiently on the driveway for Scott to finally get out of the house.  _ Why was this dude always late?   _ To hurry him along so they wouldn’t be late to class again, Stiles sounded his claxon. And out came the big bad wolf… who seemed exceptionally grumpy, even taking into account that it was a Monday morning.

“I heard you get on the driveway, there’s no need for all that noise,” Scott snapped as soon as he opened the door on the passenger’s side.

“Oh geez, touchy puppy. Did your mom not give you enough treats or belly rubs?”

“Shut up! This is awful! My life is ruined!” Well, that was certainly not a side of Scott Stiles often got to see. His best friend barely ever even got irritated, let alone genuinely angry about something. And Stiles also couldn’t really see what was so bad about suddenly being way better than an ordinary human being. If anything from what he’d read online was true, then even Scott’s life expectancy was so much better now. So all the complaining really wasn’t necessary in Stiles’ opinion.

He tried to tell Scott as much. “It can’t be all that ba—”

“It is! I can smell the dirty socks and underwear in your lacrosse bag on the back seat as if you’re dangling them right in front of my face! I can hear the neighbors making calls in their houses, I can hear the freaking dogs howling from 5 blocks away!” Scott started ranting. “I heard my mom pee for fuck’s sake! And this will be my life from now on! I will hear my mom pee every single day, multiple times a day! And I’ll be lucky if that’s all the private time I hear from my mom!”

Okay, to be fair to Scott, that didn’t sound all that fun. “Well… if it helps, sometimes my dad comes to take a shit in the bathroom even when I’m in the shower.” Stiles tried, but all it managed to get him was a deadpan glare that told him it didn’t really help all that much.

“How am I even going to survive school? The locker room is smelly even without this werewolf stuff!” Stiles winced at that, because yep, the locker room was simply disgusting.

“And you’re probably going to be spending more time in there than ever.”

“What? No, I’m not going near it ever again, Stiles!”

“Scott, with this werewolf stuff that you seem to find so horribly annoying, you’ll be able to make first line. Your reflexes will be faster, you will be faster and stronger and you’ll be rid of your asthma. You’ll have better stamina than any professional athlete and you didn’t even have to train for it.” Stiles took a deep breath before he finally glanced at Scott. “I’m sorry, I totally interrupted your  _ oh my god, lycanthropy ruined my life _ pity party, didn’t I?”

“My asthma is gone?” Scott asked instead of starting up his rant again.

“Yeah, it should be. Werewolves don’t get sick, your healing is too quick. Which is ironic because technically lycanthropy is a virus. So, you’ll be sick for the rest of your life because there’s no cure for lycanthropy but you won’t get sick ever because werewolf. Cool, huh?” He could already imagine how cool Lydia Martin would find all of this. Not that she would ever believe that there was such a thing as werewolves, but if she did, she’d think it was cool. And Stiles would be able to woo her with science and they’d get married and have three kids and a dog and a cat and they’d move into a house with a white picket fence and Lydia would gather worldwide fame because of her Fields medal and—

“How do you know all this stuff?”

“The internet, Scotty. You know, I’d say I’m disappointed in you that you didn’t even google anything after being turned into a freaking werewolf, but I’m not even surprised. Which is why you’re lucky you got me. I made you a folder of information I think is legit.” Stiles pointed at his bag on the backseat for Scott to get out the folder. “We’ll have to ask Laura and Derek about it all though, make sure it’s not just internet babble. Also, it said something about the alpha having control over the people he’s bitten, so if you hear a creepy little voice in the back of your head telling you to kill someone, don’t listen. Unless the voice wants you to kill Jackson. But let’s be real, then it’s probably just your own inner voice you’re hearing.”

“Stiles, you’re the one always saying we need to kill people. Jackson, Harris, Greenberg… I haven’t listened to you so far. I’m not going to start listening to some alpha I don’t even know.” Fair enough. Stiles was actually quite proud to have had such a huge part in the development of Scott’s conscience. Without Stiles’ help, Scott might have already killed people.

They spent what little was left of the ride to school in silence as Scott flipped through the information Stiles had gathered so far. But as soon as they entered the school building, Scott just dropped all the papers in Stiles’ arms and went off to talk to that girl he’d met last Friday. Stiles couldn’t remember her name, he could only remember Scott’s puppy eyes when he’d told Stiles about lending her a pen. Like that was supposed to be some magical moment or something.

At least the girl didn’t look annoyed when Scott went to talk to her, being awkward as ever if the blushing was anything to go by. Stiles shook his head fondly, of course Scott was the kind of romantic who genuinely thought lending someone a pen was like sealing a bond for life, a bond worth dropping his best buddy for.

When Stiles went to turn to go to his locker, a blonde girl walked into him, or he walked into a blonde girl… it didn’t really matter, those were details. What mattered, was that his entire weekend of werewolf research was now all over the school hallway. Where people just  _ stepped on it and walked over it with their dirty filthy shoes _ . Yeah, Stiles’ luck.

The girl immediately crouched down with him to try and gather all the papers again. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t see you! A—“

“It’s fine. I wasn’t looking where I was going either. You okay? I didn’t hit you in your face with a flailing limb or anything, right?” The girl shook her head. “Oh, Erica, right? Aren’t you in my chemistry class?” Stiles said, having recognized her when she’d finally looked up at him.

“Yeah… I… I didn’t know you knew my name,” Stiles just gave her an easy smile, trying to ignore how sad that little sentence sounded.

“Of course I do! You’re amazing at chemistry, we should partner up once.” It was true, the only reason Stiles knew her name was because she corrected one of Lydia’s formulas once. Otherwise he may have never noticed her. She was a bit of a wallflower.

Erica was blushing when she replied. “Oh… Okay,” And then the inevitable happened, Stiles saw Erica’s brow furrow in confusion as she looked down at the papers they were gathering.

“Werewolves?” She just asked and looked at him as if he was crazy, which may have had something to do with the kind of crazy eyes Stiles got when he was discovered.

“Erm… yes… research.”

“On werewolves?”

“Yes… it’s for… this gaming community I’m a part of. It battles mythical creatures. We’ve… we’ve got a werewolf infestation and no idea how to handle it, so… we’re… going to handle it now.” Stiles stuttered and frantically tried to gather all the papers at once, just to be able to leave right the fuck now.

“You’re part of a gaming community that battles mythical creatures?” She asked with a smile on her lips that… huh… it wasn’t judging. Well, color Stiles surprised. “Even I don’t print out my research for games. And here I thought I was the biggest nerd.”

“Erm, hello? Have you met me?” Stiles asked, smiling at her again, both of them still sitting there in the middle of the school hallway, like some sort of— “Ha, it’s like we’re the leads in some horrible rom com. You know with the papers all over the floor. And suddenly realizing we’ve got something in common. That something being gigantic nerds.” Finally Erica handed the final papers over to Stiles and he helped her up.

“Yeah I think we both know we wouldn’t be the ones in the lead in that scenario. Your friend seems like he’d be a lead in an awfully cute movie though.” Erica said with a nod towards the end of the hall. Where Scott was currently leaning against the wall and flashing an adorable smile at whoever the girl with the dark hair was. Stiles would tell himself to remember and ask Scott for her name if he wasn’t already sure that Scott would be talking about her non-stop as soon as he joined Stiles for class again.

“Oh yeah, he’d totally be the lovesick puppy, yes. Actually, I think if you’d just follow those two around for the next… let’s say two months, we’d have ourselves a blockbuster rom com complete with fantasy undertones and a marriage proposal to end the movie on a happy note.” Stiles said honestly.

“Really, he’s the kind of guy to propose within two months?”

“No, no, not at all. He’s the kind of guy who already has the proposal and the marriage planned and is just trying desperately to wait for two months so as not to seem too eager.” Stiles was still staring at Scott while he nodded solemnly as if to assure Erica he was telling the truth and nothing but the truth.

“Ha, yeah, he looks like he’d be that kind of guy,” Erica agreed and then turned to face Stiles again, “it’s the—“

“—puppy eyes.” They finished together and laughed on their way to the lockers.

“I’ll see you at chemistry!” Stiles shouted right before Erica could round the corner of the hallway on her way to her own class.

*****

Scott hadn’t stopped talking about this stupid Allison ever since he went up to talk to her that morning. Between all their classes Stiles had to listen to the same old song of Allison this, Allison that, and during lunch it got worse because Scott made him read the entire text history between the two love birds. It was… sickening, honestly. They only met on Friday, why were there already hearts and kisses in these texts? And then the real kicker came when they entered chemistry class. Because there she was, Allison in all her dimpled smile glory.

It only took Scott a second to bring out the puppy eyes. “Stiles, I know we promised to be lab partners forever and ever, but…”

“Oh for fuck’s sake, go Scotty. I wouldn’t be able to stand your longing looks across the room anyway.” Honestly, Stiles wasn’t even that bummed out, because Erica came walking up to him.

“So, I guess we’re partnering up sooner than expected?” She asked hopefully and Stiles just gave her his biggest smile.

“Yep! Couldn’t say no to my bro joining his future wife. It’s chemistry.” He couldn’t resist the cheesy pun.

Erica gave him a look that seemed to be intended to size him up. “You’re a lot lamer than I thought you were.” Stiles had no other response than clutching his imaginary pearls. “Seriously, I thought you were kind of cool with your comic book shirts, but… I can’t be seen with punners. That just won’t do. I have a reputation to uphold.” To Erica’s credit, she managed to keep from laughing for at least 3 seconds.

They both laughed madly till Harris glared at them because he’d decided to start his class. The experiments for today were fairly straightforward, so Stiles and Erica had quite some time to get to know each other better.

“Hey, cool bracelet,” Stiles noticed it only as her sleeve rode up a bit when she reached out to add a bit of water to their solution. Erica looked so shocked at him and almost knocked over the entire experiment. “Don’t be so startled. We’re both comic book nerds. No reason to hide that from each other. I love Catwoman. It was my mom’s favorite superhero. Apart from Batman of course.”

“Oh my god… of course you’re talking about that bracelet.” Erica muttered under her breath, but still loud enough for Stiles to catch it.

It took a while before he understood what she’d meant by that. She was terrified of him seeing a bracelet, but not the Catwoman bracelet… “Dude, you can’t actually believe I’m that much of a jerk to laugh about your epilepsy, right? And we all know you have it, which is good, because it’s safer if the people around you know. Which is the whole point of that bracelet. People need to know what to do.”

“You can’t actually believe I’m that stupid to think it’s no big deal, right? It’s not as if the people here have been all that understanding of it. I can’t wait till I get out of this place. Teenagers are jerks.”

“People are jerks. And you’re a lot more feisty than I thought you were. I like you, Erica Reyes. I’m keeping you.”  _ Oh dear god, he’d turned into a creepy possible serial killer that might try to convince two teenagers in the woods that one of them had turned into a werewolf _ .

Of course Harris had to interrupt their fun though. “Are you two almost done with the chit chat?” Stiles rolled his eyes, but both him and Erica got back to the task at hand. Eventually, Harris even went to pester some other students. Huh, miracles still existed.

Erica and Stiles turned the volume of their chit chat down for the rest of the experiment. They even tried to be serious about the whole thing, although that proved to be a lot more difficult than they’d expected. They simply couldn’t stop giggling about the little stupid things. This was almost as bad as when Stiles partnered up with Scott. With the very important difference that Erica knew what she was doing.

Seriously, it was all going great, Stiles had never sat in one of Harris’ classes this long without being given some sort of stern talking to or a punishment or a detention slip or being sent to the principal. Of course it couldn’t keep being great though. Ten minutes before the final bell would ring, Stiles’ phone rang instead. Well, buzzed, but Harris with his creepy little bat ears totally heard it.

Stiles’ fingers were twitching at the edge of his pocket, so badly wanting to grab his phone. “Please share with the class what’s so important, Stiles.”

“There’s nothing important, sir, I didn’t even check my phone that’s how unimportant it is.” It’s not like Stiles was awaiting an update on an out-of-control alpha werewolf or anything like that. Nope, Stiles was not going to give Harris the satisfaction of seeing him check his phone in class, even if it (possibly) concerned his best friend’s well-being. Or let alone the well-being of the whole town.

“If it was important enough for you to leave your phone on during my class, then it’s important enough for us all to hear it.” Translation: if your phone disturbs my class for a teeny tiny second, then I will continue to disturb that class so much longer, just so you can wish the ground would swallow you up in shame. “Give me your phone, Mr Stilinski.” With a heavy sigh Stiles handed over the phone. But his eyes quickly grew wide in horror as he noticed the little notification of the message on his screen right before Harris could take the phone from him.

“I have the alphapo-… what is this, Stilinski? Is this some kind of drug deal?” Well that certainly got the students whispering.

Stiles had to shake his head wildly before squinting at the teacher. “What? A dru—… how did you get drug deal from that?”

“So it is? You’re committing to it? Oh, I can’t wait to be the one to break the news to your father.”

“No! No that was not me committing to anything. It’s a game thing! What kind of drugs are you on?” He exclaimed, voice rising in tone and volume all the while pointing an accusing finger at Harris.

“That’s it. To the principal’s office! I can’t wait to tell the sheriff all about how I figured out his son is a drug dealer. Not only that, but that he raised a kid stupid enough to arrange drug deals via traceable text messages.”

Stiles seriously couldn’t believe this guy ever thought he’d be fit to be a teacher. “Oh my  _ god _ !” He said in annoyance as he shoved his books in his bag and went on his merry way to get far away from Harris.

Right after he’d slammed the door behind himself, Stiles turned back around and stormed into the classroom once more. “You going to keep the ‘evidence’ of this supposed ‘drug deal’? I can’t wait to tell my dad that not only are there teachers falsely accusing me of criminal offenses, but they’re also stupid enough to send me to the principal’s office without the incriminating text! What do you think the respectable sheriff of this county would think about his kid getting a subpar education?” He sneered as he snatched his phone back.

By now, Stiles was more friendly with the principal of this horrid school than any of its teachers. The secretary still shook his head when he saw Stiles, but picked up the phone — with what Stiles would like to think was a fond smile — to notify the principal of the culprit’s arrival.

“Stiles. What did you do to piss him off this time?” It should probably say a lot about Stiles that even after only a month of the new school year, the principal already knew Stiles’ schedule.

“Exist,” Stiles replied honestly as he flopped down in the chair facing principal Boden. “What I did to piss him off is leave my phone on. Which I know is against school policy, but let’s face it, none of the students care about that rule. I wasn’t using my phone in class, but I did receive a text message. I know, I know, the buzzing annoys the teachers and the other students and it disturbs the class, which is exactly why it’s against school policy to leave your phone on.”

“How embarrassing was it?” the principal asked, knowing about the rule Harris had to make people read their texts aloud in class. “Please don’t tell me you blew up in his face and gave him even more reasons to ha— dislike you.” Mr Boden shook his head, really hoping that Stiles hadn’t gotten himself in that much trouble over a stupid text message.

“As if MrHarris has actual reasons to dislike me. I’m one of his best students. And we all know that isn’t thanks to his teaching abilities. No, no, he’s now under the impression that the text I received is about some kind of drug deal.” Stiles easily handed over his phone to the chuckling man on the other side of the desk.

“How did he get drug deal from this?”

“That’s what I asked him! Look, no offence to you, principal Boden, but why do you insist on keeping this nutjob on as a teacher? I’m not saying you should fire him, I’m just saying I can’t be the only one who sees potential in Mr Harris the mad cafeteria lady.” The principal huffed out another laugh at that, making Stiles smirk, he totally had the principal wrapped around his little finger. “Anyway, he threatened to tell my dad about me being involved in a crime and also about me being stupid. So then I kind of sassed him back. But that was after he sent me to your office, so really, you can’t punish me for the sassing.” Stiles concluded his statement, joining his hands together, clearly resting his case.

“You’re lucky you’re smart, Stiles,” They both knew that no one would ever be able to help Stiles if he somehow failed chemistry. Because there was simply no way in hell that Mr Harris would ever be convinced to let Stiles make up for any failed tests or projects. “So, what was the text really about?”

Stiles just shrugged, because this part was easy. “It’s about a game I’m playing. I’m part of an online gaming community that battles mythical creatures. We’ve been in over our heads with this werewolf infestation for a while now. But clearly our troubles will be over soon. Because Laura has the alphapower now. So we’re meeting up in Boyd’s diner to celebrate.” This online gaming community was the best excuse Stiles could have ever come up with. It would cover so much for him. And it wasn’t even a lie, really. And with this excuse of celebration he didn’t even have to hide the relieved smile wanting to come through because  _ oh my god Laura had managed to get the alpha power which must mean that Peter is dealt with _ .

“Of course you are.” Principal Boden smiled indulgently at Stiles, just as the final bell rang. “Well, I’ll leave you to celebrate today then, but I can’t just let you go off as if nothing happened. You’ve got to stop lecturing the teachers, Stiles, it’s just not how school’s supposed to work. You’re going to give them all an inferiority complex if you keep going like this,” he let out a small sigh before deciding on a fit punishment. “Library duty next week during your lunch breaks.” 

“Bu—”

“Stiles, be careful here. We both know there’s barely any work to be done for you, Miss Patterson will just let you read the whole time. It’s not any different from your other lunch breaks. So…” Boden clapped his hands together decisively, “Off you go then.”

“Thanks Mr Boden! I’ll see you soon!” Because let’s face it, of course he would.

When he exited the principal’s office, for once Scott wasn’t waiting directly outside. Stiles actually had to take a couple of seconds to determine what was so different from his usual experience with principal Boden, before he noticed the lack of Scott. Well, it wasn’t so much a lack of Scott as that Scott was right at the end of the hall, not waiting for Stiles, but instead — surprise, surprise — chatting with Allison. Stiles rolled his eyes in annoyance. You’d think that after his best friend was just sent to the principal for allegedly being involved in a drug deal, Scott would care enough to barge into the principal’s office in defense of Stiles’ honor, but oh no, the guy wouldn’t even wait to hear if Stiles managed to get out unscathed.

He shot a quick text back to Laura.

**_We’ll be there in 20._ **

Then assessed the situation a little more carefully.

**_Make that 30, Scott is making puppy eyes at a giggly girl._ **

*****   
  
A lot of giggling on Allison’s part, a lot of nagging and eye rolling on Stiles’ part, a lot of lovesick looks on Scott’s part, and 40 minutes later Stiles and Scott finally arrived at Boyd’s diner to meet up with the Hales.   
  
“Oy! Don’t look at me like that, grumpy!” was Stiles’ way of greeting a glaring Derek. “This was all Scott’s fault. With his lovey dovey PDA all over the school and the parking lot and even halfway in my car.” To really drive the imagery home, Stiles made some gagging noises, before turning to Laura. “Seriously, alpha, I’m going to have to demand some sort of compensation for emotional damage caused by your packmate here.”   
  
Scott squeaked indignantly trying to make Stiles shut up. “You can’t just say stuff like that. We’re in public!” he hissed. Which made Laura and Derek huff in amusement.   
  
“Take a seat already so we don’t have to scream at each other about all the secret, secret, hush, hush, hush werewolf business.” Laura said in a stage whisper.   
  
“What? Not him too. He’s not pack. He’s not even a werewolf!”   
  
Stiles huffed and pulled out the chair opposite of Derek. “Before you get your panties in a twist, Derek, I’d like to gently remind you of the fact that Scott isn’t pack yet either. And here’s a reality check, we’re kind of a package deal. He’s the beauty, I’m the brains.” Stiles stole a curly fry off of Derek’s plate because  _ ha, we’re in public now, sucker, try to kill me here. I dare you! _ “Well, I guess with this newfound werewolf power, you can be the beauty and the brawn now, Scotty.”   
  
“Yeah, about that, exactly how strong will I be? Can I become team captain now? Can I win the Olympics?” Scott started, because this morning Stiles had really helped him to see the silver lining in all this lycanthropy stuff.   
  
“How many professional athletes are actually closeted werewolves? Or other supernatural creatures? Or wait… is that even possible? Or would the tests for performance-enhancing drugs show some very weird results if a werewolf is tested? Is that why you’re so grumpy and bitter all the time, Derek? Did being a werewolf ruin your dream of becoming a professional figure skater? You look like you’d be a great figure skater.” Laura nearly snorted her coke out of her nose at that.   
  
“Oh god, you really don’t pull your punches, do you? And yeah, professional athlete is kind of out of the question. Mainly because of ethics. You wouldn’t want to win the Olympics being a cheater, ri—“   
  
“Erm, ye-eeaaaah.” Stiles and Scott said in sync.   
  
“Well, don’t. You’re going to want to lay low, be ordinary, blend in. Because believe me, you don’t want people to find out about where exactly you got your extra brawn.”   
  
“Why is that?” Aww, lovely, naïve little Scott.   
  
“Not everyone is as okay with werewolves existing as you two happen to be. There are people who think we shouldn’t be allowed to roam the earth at all. They’d do anything to exterminate us.”   
  
“I totally recognize this situation as being way too serious to respond with a dalek joke, but you might want to help me refraining myself by explaining what you just said.”   
  
“There are hunters, families who know about the existence of the supernatural and who tend to have rather extreme beliefs about us. They say they live by a code, that they would only ever hunt the creatures who cross the line and hurt innocent humans, but… the code tends to be treated more as a rough guideline than a strict rule, really.” Laura tried to add a shrug at the end as if that would make it all a little better, or well, a little less bad.   
  
“Oh that’s just wonderful. Any other dangers we should be aware of?”   
  
“She was getting to that! If you would just shut up for once then we would have gotten through this conversation already!” Derek snapped and Stiles could've sworn he saw a little bit of a blue flash in Derek's eyes.    
  
“I don't like you very much,” Stiles stated calmly before letting Laura go on with her explanation.    
  
“One of the most important families to worry about is the Argent family. They're probably the strongest and biggest hunting group that’s still active. We've... had trouble with them before and coincidence or not, they've moved into town just as we got here.”

Scott’s eyes immediately went wide at that tidbit of information. “The Argents? As in Allison Argent?” 

“I don’t know her in particular, but yes, the name would suggest so,” Laura said, looking suspicious. 

“Oh you’ve got to be kidding me… Scott, bro, I’m so sorry.” 

“Don’t say that! We can make it work, we love each oth—” 

“Does she know?” Was the first thing Laura asked.

“Know what? Know about werewolves in general? Know about Scott being a werewolf in particular? Or about the fact that apparently she’s been born into a weird extremist cult thing?” The Hales just gave him a deadpan glare, looking eerily alike while doing so. Stiles just raised his hands in surrender. “Okay, all of the above, got it.” 

“You’ve got to stop seeing her obviou—” Stiles winced as Scott interrupted Derek immediately. Oh, Derek should really not come in between two lovesick puppies. 

“I love her! She loves me! We’re  _ in love! _ I’m not going to stop seeing her just because your crazy uncle bit me or she just happens to be part of a family you don’t particularly like. You don’t get to tell me what to do!” Stiles saw Scott’s eyes flash and woah… yeah, okay, so his best friend is actually some sort of supernatural canine thing now. That suddenly got a lot more real. 

“Scotty, calm down.”

“Yeah. Sit down and listen for once. You have no idea what these people are capable of!” Derek leaned over the table to get closer to Scott. “Your alpha just warned you about them not even respecting their own little code. You may think you love her, but if she finds out what you are and you’re actually stupid enough to stay with her, then she will kill you first chance she gets!”

“Oy!” Stiles poked the glaring werewolf in the chest. “Don’t call him stupid just because you and your grumpy ass wouldn’t recognize romance or true love when it stabbed you in the heart! Only I get to call him stupid, and I do it affectionately.” He slapped Scott on the shoulder in support. “Also, I don’t like this whole…  _ thing _ you’ve got going on.”

“You just pointed at all of me.” 

“I know! Because you’re hostile from your glaring eyebrows to your clenching fists all the way down to the tips of your toes. If you really want us to be in your pack so badly—”

“Only one of you,” Derek interrupted.

“—then you’ll have to start acting like a good little puppy instead of a simple no-brain guard dog of your sister. I mean look at her!” Stiles gestured at Laura, “It’s not like she needs anyone to protect her!” 

Laura positively preened at that. “I really do like you. Now if we could just go back to the topic at hand with the whole star-crossed lovers thing going on…”

“Can’t I just talk to her?” Scott slumped back in his seat, the whole argument with Derek apparently already forgotten. “I know I’m not supposed to tell anyone, but some people are bound to find out! Like my mom… and Stiles’ dad. And I don’t think you’re supposed to keep the fact that you’re a werewolf from your girlfriend, I don’t think that constitutes a good relationship.” 

“Yeah right!” Stiles scoffed. “We are so not telling my dad I’m hanging out with werewolves. And you are definitely not telling Allison. There are only two ways that conversation can turn out. Either she knows about the whole werewolf thing already because her family is a bunch of crazy supernatural hunters, in which case she will kill you and slice you into a million little pieces. Or she doesn’t know about the whole werewolf thing yet, in which case she’ll just think you’re absolutely insane.” 

To everyone’s surprise, Derek actually nodded in agreement to something Stiles had said. But Laura looked a little pensive still. 

“We have to go talk with the Argents anyway, we have to set up a new treaty… We’ll go as a pack and we’ll just be honest with them. They probably won’t kill anyone while we’re setting up a treaty and whether Allison is there or not will already tell you if she knows about werewolves. So, best case scenario, her folks tell you to stop seeing their daughter. Worst case scenario, Allison breaks up with you.” 

It was quiet for a couple beats while everyone took in what was just said. Derek’s permanent frown turned into an incredibly powerful glare at his clenched fists. Scott’s shoulders slumped even further and he got that whole sad puppy look on his face again. 

Stiles just looked at Laura in awe. “Who knew werewolves would be pretty and logical?” 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, lovelies! Thanks for reading :D   
> Leave some kudos/comments if you enjoyed it <3  
> Next chapter should be up in 2 weeks (January 28)
> 
> You can find me on [Tumblr](http://bilienski.tumblr.com/) come hang out :D


	4. Mister Dude

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again to [Junglejelly](http://archiveofourown.org/users/JungleJelly/works) and [xlogophile](http://archiveofourown.org/users/xlogophile/works) you guys are the best, I can't believe you even put up with me barely giving you 24 hours to beta a chapter.

Something told him that he was probably going to regret this later, but damn Stiles was excited for today. Because today was the day they were finally invited into the wolf’s den. Of course he still had to manage to survive the ride over to the Hales’ place. Which would be another test of his self-control with Scott in the car. God, he felt awful for even thinking that, but to be fair, Scott had been a real freaking pain in the ass all week. Stiles had never been more grateful for the weekend to finally be here, simply because he wouldn’t  _ have to  _ hang out with his best friend.

Tuesday Scott had been so down, he’d barely said a word all day. He’d avoided talking to Allison and had hidden in the library with Stiles during lunch. And yeah, Scott being so sad had made Stiles feel awful, but it was still better than Scott just being plain stupid and making everything worse. Like he’d done the rest of the week.

Just thinking about it made Stiles want to facepalm, or smack Scott’s head to knock some sense into him. How could his best friend not see that asking the girl out on a date was not going to help them at all if her parents were going to make them stop seeing each other? All Scott had done was get even closer to Allison, they’d spent every waking moment either talking to each other or texting or skyping. Stiles could practically see Scott falling more and more in love with every passing hour. It was  _ ridiculous _ .

And when he’d tried to tell Scott as much, all he’d gotten in reply was some sort of comparison to  _ Romeo and Juliet _ . As if that was supposed to be a good thing?

_ “Scotty, buddy, you do realize they both ended up dead, right?” Stiles had asked, incredulously observing Scott’s face, hoping that the lovey-dovey look would be replaced by some horrific realization. _

_ “What? No, Stiles, it was just pretend. She only pretended to die so they could be together and love each other forever and ever. And it was perfect.” Scott had actually let out a wistful sigh. _

_ “Okay, first of all, you need to start finishing books by actually reading till the end and not just quitting whenever you think there’s a scene that looks like a happy ending. Romeo and Juliet died. A painful and heartbroken death, Scott. It’s quite possibly the worst love story in the history of love stories. And second, would you just stop texting her for one minute when I’m trying to explain to you why this is all such a very, very, very bad idea? Because it is, Scott! It’s a terrible idea! Her family is specifically trained to kill people with furry asses like yours!” _

_ But all Scott had done, was distractedly wave him off while continuing to stare longingly down at his phone. “I’d wax my ass every day if she wanted me to.” _

Which is the point where Stiles had quickly called an end to the conversation.  After that, Stiles had given up on trying to keep Scott’s inevitable heartbreak to a minimum. There’s no point in giving advice to someone who doesn’t listen anyway. 

 

Stiles and Scott hadn’t really spent a lot of time talking to each other since then. Whenever it was the two of them in school, Scott had talked, sure. He had gone on and on and on about dimples and shiny hair and cute texts, but Stiles had mostly tried to ignore it. Which would be a lot more difficult when they would be completely alone in a car together. Stiles let out a tired sigh as he got in his car to go pick up the lovesick puppy. He was really hoping that he would at least manage not to snap at his best friend for the duration of the ride. He’d just have to focus on meeting the Hales again today, that was bound to be fun. 

As he drove onto Scott’s driveway, Stiles drew in one more deep breath and braced himself for what was bound to be another  _ praise-Allison-to-heaven _ fest. And sure enough, when Scott finally walked up to the Jeep, he had  **that smile** on his face again. The smile that said more than any words could convey how much Scott was in love with this girl. For fuck’s sake, it had barely been a week since he’d first met her!

To Stiles’ surprise, Scott didn’t immediately start gushing about some text Allison had sent him. He just looked at Stiles with a ridiculously wide smile and an incredible amount of excitement glimmering in his eyes. 

“So, how was your day?” Scott asked in a way that made it clear he was really fishing for Stiles to ask about Scott’s day. Which was ridiculous because it had only been two hours since they’d last seen each other in school. 

Stiles sighed and put on a cursory smile as he pulled out of the driveway again. “What kind of romantic shit did she do now?” 

“She said she couldn’t wait for the movies on Sunday so she moved things around so we could go tomorrow.” Oh for god’s sake… Stiles really didn’t want to be  **that guy** again. But there was no nice way to say this, no way to get the message across without killing Scott’s mood. 

“Scott, dude, buddy, I love you. Seriously, I do. I even love how you manage to fall head over heels in love with a girl you’ve known for literally 9 days. And I’d fucking hate to see you heartbroken, but you’ve got to realize that that’s most likely what’s going to happen, right? You’re going to tell her hunter family that you’re the werewolf that’s dating their daughter. Tha—”

“Yeah, about that,” Scott interrupted him with a hard, decisive look in his eyes, “I’m just going to tell Laura we’re not going to do that.” 

That actually surprised Stiles enough to keep him from immediately starting to list all the reasons why that was the worst idea. “You’re going to do what now?” 

“We’re not going to tell anyone that I’m dating Allison. I mean, how weird would it be for Allison to find out that her family suddenly knows me when she hasn’t even introduced me yet? I don’t want her to get into that conversation with her dad. That would be awkward for her, right? So we’re not doing it. Laura will understand.” 

“Laura will… ha! Yeah, sure, Scotty,” Stiles honestly could not believe his friend sometimes. “You do realize that this isn’t just about your love life, right? This is about the whole pack! Thi—”

“We don’t even know these people! And I didn’t ask for any of this!” Stiles’ hands tightened on the steering wheel, already more than done with this argument.

“Well, you got it anyway. And I’m not ready for my best friend to die for some stupid crush, okay? So if Laura says you need to man up and tell the hunters that you want to regularly suck face with their daughter, then you do that.” Stiles told him firmly.

“It’s not a stupid crush. I’d be happy to die for her, like Romeo and Juliet.” Oh he actually went there again.

“Scott, even you have to realize that saying stuff like that when you guys haven’t gone on a single date yet, is freaking unbelievably naive and stupid.” 

“I don’t see what your problem is with her! You’re my best friend, how hard is it for you to be excited for me that I finally met someone who I like and who likes me in return?” Oh Scott really wasn’t playing fair with that one. 

Stiles sighed and took the last turn on their way to the address Laura had given them. “Can we just not do this right now?” And as soon as the words had left Stiles’ mouth he pulled a face at how weird that sounded. Beside him, Scott chuckled as well. 

“My mom’s right, we’re like an old married couple.” He took a deep breath before continuing, “I know it’s stupid, okay? I know I probably should have just stayed away from her, but… I can’t, Stiles.”

“Yeah… yeah, I know, buddy. This sucks. Hey, maybe Laura has come up with a better plan?” Stiles tried to go for positive and hopeful, but he was a cynical being at heart, he couldn’t pretend that everything would just sort itself out in the best possible way. That’s just not how their life or luck worked. 

 

They both got out of the Jeep and walked up to the apartment building, both a little nervous and apprehensive about what they would find inside. The whole complex was an old factory that got renovated only two years back. According to Stiles’ dad the apartments were ridiculously expensive too. How had two twenty-something year-olds managed to rent a place here? There was no way they did that without committing at least a couple of crimes. (Which was implied by the sheriff’s mistrusting face when Stiles had asked him for the fastest route to the address Laura had provided.)

At the door, they were presented with the conundrum of which button to press for the doorbell. There were no numbers on the buttons to indicate which apartment it belonged to, only names, and there were about 6 without any names on them at all. Stiles was just debating whether it’d be worth it to press them all when a buzzer sounded. And oh, sure, that’s not creepy at all. 

“Erm…” Stiles uttered and looked at Scott to see if maybe the werewolf knew what the fuck was going on. 

Then Laura’s voice came through the little speaker. “Just come in, Stiles!” 

“Oh my god!” Stiles squawked. “What the fuck, Laura? How did you even—”

“I could hear that deathtrap of a Jeep from miles away. Now come in.” After which the buzzer sounded once more, till Scott pushed the door open. 

On their way up the stairs, Stiles muttered some stuff about stupid werewolves insulting his baby and Scott just rolled his eyes, telling Stiles to walk on. 

It was a pretty great building, and Stiles finally understood why his dad had pulled such a weird face when Stiles said he had friends that lived here. This industrial looking shit was fancy these days, it probably cost a fortune to have an apartment here. The walls were all rough red bricks, the staircase was dark metal but the slim railing made it look appropriately elegant. Who’d have thought a wolf’s den could be so fancy-schmancy? 

Just as he raised his hand to knock on the door, Laura opened it, scaring Stiles  _ again _ . 

“Oh for the love of god!” Stiles screamed as he jumped backwards. “You’ve got to stop doing that! I thought no one was supposed to know about all the wolfy powers, so why don’t you start acting human, huh?”

“Hello to you too, Stiles,” Laura said while rolling her eyes and then turned to Scott. “Come on in, the food’s almost ready.” 

They entered a sober looking loft, with the same rough red bricks making up the rooms and a similar staircase in the back left corner. It was a very open place, the kitchen only separated from the living area by a long bar. The barstools looked like they were made out of the exact same material as the staircase. There were two big comfy-looking couches facing the TV mounted on the left-side wall, and in the back was a humongous window with two armchairs and a coffee table in front of it. It didn’t look very lived-in yet, but it looked like an amazingly cool bachelor place, only too neat to belong to a bachelor. 

“Wow. How rich are you guys?” Scott asked, his jaw practically hitting the floor. Stiles was just about to elbow him for being so incredibly rude, but then he finally really noticed what was behind the bar. The kitchen, complete with a big round dining table in the middle and a Derek. A Derek who was preparing food. 

“Oh my God! You cook?” In response to the yelling, Derek’s shoulders rose just a little bit, like the hackles of a pissed-off canine, his knuckles turning white around the spoon he was holding and his jaw setting just a little firmer. 

Stiles could almost see the effort Derek was putting into not completely losing control when he said, “I still don’t get why this guy needs to be here, Laura.” 

“Well I’m not going to explain it again.” Laura said, taking a seat at the bar. “How’s the food coming along?”

“Fine! Just like it was two minutes ago. Now would you just stop whining and be patient for once in your life?” 

“Ooooh, snappy wolf, what happened to respecting your alpha, huh?” Stiles said with a smirk, happily taking the seat to Laura’s left. “You know, they say you really need to nip behavior like that in the butt as soon as it presents itself. Or is it already too late? Some old dogs, new tricks kind of thing?” At that, Derek finally turned around, his eyes glowing blue as the wooden spoon snapped in half in his hand. 

“Derek, don’t you fucking start. Get back to cooking.” Laura ordered calmly yet firmly before she turned to glare at Stiles. “And you, stop being such an asshole. I won’t call him off next time.” 

“You’re no fun.” Stiles mumbled, just as a voice sounded behind him. 

“I thought I was the out-of-control werewolf, Derek.” Stiles and Scott both almost fell from their stools, with how quickly they tried to turn around to get a look at the new person in the room. 

“Dude, someone is going to trip over that V-neck,” was the only thing Stiles could think of saying.

“Dude?” The dark-haired guy bristled. Seriously, he had to be a Hale — beautiful as fuck, dark hair and kind of scary, though this one had a little bit of extra in that last department. 

Stiles rolled his eyes. “Mister dude, then? It’s not like you’ve introduced yourself.”

“I thought he was supposed to be the smart one.” The guy said to Laura, looking at her with something that came dangerously close to accusation. 

“He is, which tells you exactly how smart the other one is.”  Laura said in an even voice, making Derek huff something so close to a laugh Stiles had to turn around to check if it was still really Derek in the kitchen. 

“What?” Scott asked, “Is she talking about me now?” Stiles could do nothing but facepalm as the Hales started laughing.

Stiles turned to Laura, demanding an explanation. “So, how did you become the alpha if you didn’t kill Peter?” They all became serious again at that. From behind his pots and pans, Derek looked just as curious as Stiles felt. Laura and Peter shared a look that Stiles couldn’t really decipher. 

“What do you mean? Peter? That’s Peter?” Scott was off his barstool in a flash, not at all liking the fact that the psycho werewolf who bit him in the woods and ruined his life was standing behind his back. 

“Calm down, I’m not going to bite,” Peter smirked. “again,” he finished, making everyone except for Scott roll their eyes. 

“That’s not funny! You… You ruined my life!” He shouted with an accusing finger pointed at Peter, who merely crossed his arms in front of his chest. Scott looked like a kicked puppy. No, no that wasn’t right. He looked like someone had kicked his puppy. Hurt and very very angry. 

“Yeah, I heard about that,” Peter started, “but the whole werewolf thing isn’t all that bad for you humans. I mean, there are plenty of kids who would do a lot to get the bite. The bite is a gift after all.” Stiles scoffed but a hard look from Peter kept him from interrupting the man further. “So, assuming you’re an average human, you shouldn’t be all up in arms like that just because I made you stronger, faster, and just better really. That makes a guy wonder though, Scott, what is it that’s so bad about being a werewolf that you think I ruined your life?” Scott didn’t say anything, just glared back, his fists clenched tightly at his sides. 

“He’s in love with an Argent.” Laura replied, seemingly casually. But there was an edge to her voice, a harsh set to her jaw that didn’t compute with the way she shrugged her shoulders. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she kept looking at Peter, as if trying to read his mind or something.  _ Oh shit, can werewolves read minds? _

“A werewolf in love with a hunter,” Stiles could have sworn Peter glanced at Derek while he said it. “Sounds like a really cliché tragedy. So I ruined your love life, is that it?” When he smirked again, it was haughty, mean. “Well, I’m sorry. My sincerest apologies. Because from what I’ve heard the…  _ passion _ of those hunter girls can burn a forest down.” 

Behind them there was a loud clattering as Derek dropped the ladle in the pot, spilling tomato soup everywhere. Stiles was already on his way to the sink to force Derek’s soup-covered hand under cold water before realizing that even if Derek had burnt himself, it would have already healed. 

“Jeez, Derek,” Laura laughed, probably trying very hard to try and get her voice to stop shaking. “You could have just told us dinner was ready.” Stiles felt as if he was missing half of the conversation. He couldn’t figure out why Derek was suddenly left with raised shoulders, a rigidly straight back, and looking for all the world like he was trying to rub through the countertop where he was cleaning up the rest of the splatters. Or why Peter had exited the room again by the time Stiles was able to look away from Derek.

Maybe Laura was right, maybe Stiles should just stop being an asshole for once in his life. Maybe if he stopped focusing on thinking of snide remarks or witty retorts he could figure out what the ever loving fuck was up with these people. 

 

Laura somehow got Peter to join them all in the kitchen again by the time Derek was really done with everything. Stiles stood around awkwardly for a bit, never sure where to sit down when he was in someone else’s home. Laura sat down first, closest to the stove and furthest from the entrance, Peter moved to her left side. It wouldn’t have been a surprise if Peter had taken the place left of the alpha, but instead he left one chair open between Laura and himself. 

“Sit,” Laura told Stiles, motioning for the seat on her left, which made him feel kind of wary. Stiles had seen plenty of mob movies. The guy sitting on the left of the leader was the one who did the dirty work. When Scott moved to take the seat on Laura’s right, Derek not-so-gently nudged him out of the way with the excuse of bringing the pot of boiling soup to the table. 

Maybe Stiles was taking his new-found role of observer a bit too seriously, but he was making mental notes of everything. Not only of how  _ weirdly _ Derek was behaving ever since he spilled soup everywhere, but also of how Peter, who seemed like an arrogant and insufferable brat to Stiles — it takes one to know one — waited patiently instead of taking the ladle and serving himself. He took note of how Laura looked around the table with a barely-there smile tugging at her lips before sitting back with a small contented sigh. 

Derek served Laura first, of course, then Stiles, although he didn’t look all that happy about having to pour the boiling liquid inside the bowl in front of the teenager instead of on his lap. Peter got the next serving, then Scott’s eyebrows raised in confusion because so far it looked like Derek was just going around the table, but against all normal conventions Derek served himself before Scott. 

Stiles had no idea how he fit into this whole little routine as Laura’s  _ second _ for fuck’s sake. That made absolutely no sense, but he figured it would be poor behavior if he brought up his question as dinner conversation. Scott, Peter and Derek just started eating so Stiles followed their lead. Only after everyone else, did Laura lift her first spoonful to her lips. 

“Oh my god… dude,” Stiles interrupted himself by eating more. “What did you put in this thing? This is freaking amazing. Who knew watered down vegetables could taste this good?” The fact alone that it took Stiles a bit to realize he gave the grumpy dude a compliment was a testament to how good the food actually was. 

For two seconds Derek looked like a deer caught in headlights, then he just nodded in acknowledgement of the compliment and ducked his head again. And even with Derek looking into his bowl of soup like it held the answers to life, the universe, and everything, Stiles could’ve sworn he saw a blush creeping high on Derek’s cheeks. Which was ridiculous, and probably just some sort of weird trick of the light.

“So, Laura, I’ve been thinking,” Scott started, “I’ve been thinking that it’s not a great idea to tell the Argents I’m dating their daughter. Because you see, technically, we’re not really dating yet.” Stiles sighed and closed his eyes to refrain from rolling them. 

“Scott, this is not the place to start keeping secrets. This isn’t worth ruining a treaty over. We’re telling them, we have to.” Laura replied in a tone that clearly added  _ “and this is not up for discussion” _ . Scott’s shoulders slumped as he gave a defeated nod, so Laura gently added, “I’m going to try my best to make this work out for you and your girlfriend, but my main job is keeping this pack safe. You understand I can’t put your relationship over the good of the pack, right?”

“I’m not that stupid,” Scott said with a scoff and a roll of his eyes. “But I don’t want to lose the only girl who’s ever shown interest in me just because some psycho tried to eat me in the woods.” He finished with a deadpan stare in Peter’s direction. 

Peter simply replied, “If I had tried to eat you, all they would’ve found was your bones.” 

“Well I see why you’re not denying being a psychopath, Jesus fucking Christ.” Stiles said, big eyes trained on the madman sitting beside him. “I really freaking hope you’re not taking him with you to discuss that treaty because him smiling that creepy smile would make anyone trigger-happy.” 

“Good advice,” Laura stated seriously, for some reason glancing from Stiles to Derek and back again. “But no, it’ll only be Derek and Scott with me. Peter is staying with you and he’s going to show you around the vault.” 

“The vault? You have a vault big enough that I need a guide to show me around in it? Also why?” Stiles fired off the most important questions coming to mind. “Why do you want me to know my way around your vault? And why does the psychopath have to be the one to do it? Why are you leaving me alone with an out-of-control werewolf?”

“He’s not out of control,” Laura started, but Stiles was quick to argue.

“It’s not even been 20 minutes since he swaggered in here with his V-neck around his ankles literally saying that he was the out-of-control werewolf.  _ Literally _ . Literally literally. Not the kind of literally that people these days use willy-nilly to try to amplify whatever they said.”

“Willy-nilly?” Derek asked with a scoff, but Stiles paid him no further mind and just went on to ask more questions.

“Also, why am I sitting here and why was I the second to get served this delicious food from the Gods? Why do you think I’m so damn important? In case you forgot, it was Scott who got turned, not me!” God, how Stiles hated not knowing.

The only reply that little rant got him, was Peter’s cryptic “I see it now.” 

“See what? For the love of all that’s holy, would it kill you to just explain something for once? Believe me when I say that being a werewolf already makes you plenty mysterious, there’s no reason to try to make it worse!”

“You’re a lot like your mother.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Hope you liked it, next chapter should be up in two weeks, so February 11th  
> Leave some kudos if you enjoyed it or tell me your thoughts in the comment section. :D
> 
> You're also very very very welcome to come say hi to me on [tumblr](http://bilienski.tumblr.com/)


	5. Of Fortunes and Floppy Disks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A big big big thank you to [Lonaargh](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Lonaargh/pseuds/Lonaargh/works) for the very last minute beta :D 
> 
> (I am so terrible at sticking to a schedule, so be grateful that the beta people are always so readily available)
> 
> Also thanks to [Junglejelly](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Junglejelly) for an extra beta (hence the repost of this chapter).

“My mother?” Stiles tried repeating it out loud, but it didn’t really help him to understand it. Barely anyone ever even mentioned his mom. “What do you even know about her?” He wanted it to sound tough to go with his  _ “don’t talk about my mother” _ -glare, but his voice came out shaky instead.

“She was a family friend, I think. I’m not sure what happened, but when your parents first moved here, your mother used to be best friends with my sister, Talia. She was the alpha at the time. I just remember them hanging out a lot, I remember your mother joining us for dinner a couple of times.” Peter said with a shrug as if what he was saying didn’t matter at all, then went back to eating. Stiles just stared at him for a bit, his left eye twitching.

“Seriously?  **_Seriously?_ ** You’re going to leave it at that?” When Peter just continued to eat instead of explaining himself, Stiles turned to face Laura. “Explain. Why do you think being my mother’s kid makes me important?” 

Laura sighed and seemed to make a point of putting her spoon down and smoothing out her shirt before looking back up. “Honestly, I don’t know. But when I started babysitting you, my mom always told me to watch out for you. And I always assumed it’s ‘cause your mother was so close to the pack. It’s why I want you and Peter to go down to the vault together, I know Mom kept journals, I’m hoping you can find some useful things in there. You’re a smart kid. You’re apparently a research wizard or something so that’s what I need you to do: research.” 

“Research.” Stiles repeated warily, scrutinizing Laura's facial expression to try and figure out if he was being tricked into something or if she genuinely wanted him to read her late mother’s diaries. For now he couldn't find anything wrong with the request so he figured he might as well just go along. “Okay.” 

After that they all just finished their soup in silence and then Derek served the next dish. Some sort of meat stew with mashed potatoes and steamed carrots. Which is when Scott finally perked up. “Hang on. If being served first makes Stiles important. Why am I being served last?”

“Cause you’re just a pup.” Laura said, as if that was self-explanatory.  

At the same time, Peter piped up again. “And because Derek doesn't like or trust you.”

“Peter.” Laura sighed tiredly, her eyes closing briefly as if she momentarily just couldn't stand looking at her uncle. 

While Scott hit Derek with his hurt puppy look in full force, “You don't like me?” Stiles snorted. Of course Scott was more worried about not being liked than about not being trusted. Scott was also simply not used to someone not liking him. Between the puppy eyes, the goofy grin, and his talent for always making everyone feel welcome, it was hard not to like him. 

“I don't  _ know _ you.” Derek snapped, but his shoulders slumped a little when he looked at Scott. “So I can't not like you. I just…” He hesitated and glanced at Laura before continuing. “I just don't like how much you hate all this. I don't understand why you hate being what we've been our whole lives.”

Stiles wished Derek wasn't looking down when he said that, because he was pretty sure the look on Derek's face would have been… Interesting. Even the sound of his voice was vulnerable somehow. Apparently when Derek wasn't trying to sound tough and scary his voice was much higher pitched, lighter. 

“And I don't trust you.” Ah, there was the normal gruff voice again, complete with Derek's standard glare. “I don't trust you because even though there are four people here telling you you're being stupid you still seem willing to take your chances with this girl. You still want to put her before your pack.” 

“I don't know you. You keep throwing that word around like it’s supposed to mean something to me, but the whole pack thing doesn't mean anything! It can't mean anything when I don't know any of you.”

“But you know him, he's your best friend. He's telling you this isn't going to end well and you're just ignoring him.” Scott at least had the decency to look guiltily at Stiles for a fraction of a second, but then he was back in the glaring match he had going with Derek. 

“He doesn't know Allison like I do.” 

“Okay, first of all, I am right here. Second of all, would you stop your bickering and enjoy this glorious stew? It doesn't matter anyway. None of it matters. The Argents aren't going to let you date their daughter, yeah, you're being stupid, Scott. And as your pack we’re all going to have to deal with the heartbreak. So a little sympathy wouldn't hurt, Derek.” 

Scott didn't try to answer anymore, which didn't at all mean he agreed if the grumpy face was anything to go by. And Derek just looked surprised, maybe because Stiles was somehow stepping out of line in this weird new werewolf world. Maybe he shouldn't have said anything. It had sounded like a pretty alpha thing to say, something between a suggestion and an order. Yeah, definitely something Laura would have said if Stiles hadn't reacted first.

And indeed, when he glanced around the table quickly, all werewolves were looking just a tad weirdly at Stiles. So he just focused on his dinner again, which wasn't a hardship at all. He was pretty sure there were some addictive or illegal substances in these mashed potatoes. There was no way it was something normal ‘cause otherwise everyone would be preparing their potatoes that way. 

“So,” Laura started just as Derek started clearing the table. “Scott, before we go to the Argents there are some things you need to know. First of all, most importantly, I really can't stress enough just how crucial this is: Don't. Talk.” Peter snorted and Scott seemed too offended to react. 

“I mean it. Not a word. Our relationship with the Argents has always been shaky at best, even when our mom was the alpha. But now… we have no common ground anymore and you being a newly bitten werewolf is not going to help. They don't really like us biting people—”

“Huh, I wonder why,” Scott scoffed, sarcasm oozing off of every syllable. 

“—and I'd rather they didn’t kill my uncle.” Peter seemed to find that incredibly funny for some reason, which didn't help Scott’s mood. “This treaty needs to be made. For all our sakes. For our safety, do you understand that? That's why I can't have you messing it up. You're going to hear some pretty weird things, customs that are going to seem ridiculously outdated to you, but also… Bigoted things. From both sides probably.” She admitted, which Stiles knew was a good thing. Scott had a weird weakness for people admitting their mistakes, their faults. Like that made them not all that bad or something. So, unsurprisingly Scott nodded, appreciating Laura's honesty and one step closer to accepting her leadership. 

“They're going to question your control to a point that's probably going to freak you out. You'll be fine is all you need to know. We will help you through the full moons and through whatever other hard times you may have. We have things set up for new wolves. If it's necessary we have secure rooms to chain you up to keep you from hurting anyone. But I think we all know you wouldn't hurt a fly even with all the full moons in a lifetime tugging at your control. You will be fine. So don't take their bait if they're trying to get a reaction from you.” Stiles was watching Laura with wide eyes. How did she just tell a teenager he'd be chained up and make it sound comforting?

“Afterwards, you’re more than welcome to make your case for dating that girl, but this treaty has to come first. When I notice that your romantic drama is putting our deal with the Argents in danger, you’re going to cut it out. I will help you as much as possible, but I’m serious, Scott, when I tell you to quit it, you do. Understood?” Wow, Stiles was pretty sure no one could say no to anything Laura said if she hit you with that look. 

“Okay, fine.”

“One more thing, since we have to wait for Derek anyway,” Laura said, making Stiles painfully aware of Derek doing all of the cleanup. Even if it mostly consisted of putting stuff in the dishwasher, it just didn’t seem fair, not at all actually, since the dude had also been the one to do all the cooking. “You two, even though you’ve not officially joined the pack yet, you’re welcome here. Always. We…” She looked down for a second, running her hand across the edge of the table for a bit before continuing. “It’s just the three of us anyway, I don’t want you to feel obligated, but you’re welcome to hang out here anytime. Even if it’s just to make homework, or rob our fridge.” 

Scott and Stiles just looked at each other before Stiles finally cleared his throat. “Dude, we’ve seen your TV, you’re not getting rid of us any time soon.” No one was fooled by the forced levity of the statement, Scott looked a bit puzzled, but hey, what else is new? And at least he didn’t protest. Thank god the guy knew his way around social cues.

“Good, alright, let’s do this,” Laura said as Derek closed the dishwasher. “Ready to go everyone?” Under other circumstances, Stiles would have laughed at how not-ready both Scott and Derek looked, but there was a lot on the line here, so he kept his mouth shut for once. 

Laura grabbed her keys and waited for her betas to follow her out the door. Scott’s shoulders slumped, and he was looking at his feet, pouting. Yeah, he looked the perfect picture of someone about to see the love of their life slip through their fingers. And Derek. Oh boy, Derek… He looked like he’d rather bathe in acid than go through with this. At the same time he also looked as defensive as one would look when threatened to be pushed into a bath of acid. A sour grumpy face to grumpily face a sour fate. Poor puppies.

Stiles had been so focused on watching them all leave that he hadn’t really considered what it meant. They left him alone. Alone with Peter. The wolf must have known exactly what Stiles was thinking, if the smirk on his face was anything to go by. Then again, it couldn’t have been hard to figure out what exactly was going through someone’s head if you could hear their heartbeat and breathing pattern and… God knows what else werewolves could pick up on. 

Stiles narrowed his eyes in suspicion, while trying to figure out if he could make it out of the kitchen or out of the loft without Peter catching him. But with Stiles’ track record of tripping over thin air, he didn’t really think his chances of jumping over the table and dashing out were all that high. 

Peter rolled his eyes. “I’m not going to kill you.” Like that was all there was to say, like that was all Stiles needed to hear. 

“Yeah, forgive me for not taking your word for that.” Oh, he was definitely sitting way too closely to the guy that attacked Scott in the woods. He tried to stand up from his chair as slowly as possible, you know, to not entice the predator.

“You really aren’t stupid, huh?” Peter asked as he moved to follow Stiles. Taking a step forward as Stiles took one back, standing as tall as possible, posturing shoulders and all when Stiles nearly fell over backwards. Just as the teenager’s back hit the countertop, hands feeling around for any kind of sharp object, Peter relaxed and turned to the sink right next to Stiles to start washing his hands. “I’m not stupid either. I’m not going to kill you here and now, Stiles, not in a situation where I would be the first and only suspect. Pass me the towel?” 

“Pass you the…” Stiles shook his head in disbelief as he threw the towel roughly in Peter’s direction. “So, where’s this vault?”

“In the basement.”

“In the basement? Of a random apartment building? Yeah right, it’d be almost more believable if the thing happened to be under the school or some other random building nowhere near the Hale house.” Stiles scoffed, he was so not falling for that one. 

“Why would an old family vault be built in the foundations of a high school?” Peter looked like he was questioning Stiles’ intelligence. Again. 

“Why would it be in the basement of this thing? Where all of the tenants could stumble upon it?” Stiles gestured wildly, because no way was this a normal thing that didn’t require some sort of explanation. 

“This wasn’t always an apartment building. And it’s actually closer to the Hale house than you may think. A wolf barely has to run 10 minutes to get here from the reserve.” Peter explained as he started to lead the way out of the loft and down the stairs. “Anyway, the vault was here before the building. The forest area used to stretch all the way out here. At first there was a sort of… watch tower here. Well, it was small, more of a fortified cabin than a tower, but the principle was the same. There were four of these cabins all stretched around the edge of the forest, around the Hale territory. They were connected to each other and the Hale house by a tunnel system.” Stiles was starting to get out of breath trying to keep up with Peter, even though they were descending.

“Most of those have of course collapsed, but the foundations of the cabins remain. All of them have a vault of some sort. This one has the most useful part of the book collection. There’s one which holds some of the Hale fortune, one that’s more of an arsenal room than a vault and there’s the one that Laura mentioned. It has a couple of rooms to hold out-of-control werewolves,” Peter explained while in the meantime they had finally reached the basement.

“So, why did you let someone build over one of those foundations? It’s not like the Hales didn’t have the money or power to stop them, if they needed an entire basement to store their fortune.” Stiles couldn’t even imagine that amount of money. 

“They didn’t let anyone. It was Talia’s grandfather who built the factory. Woodworking and carpentry was a hobby of his, he turned it into a very lucrative business. But it died with him, so Elliot, Talia’s husband, made the plans to renovate it and rent out the apartments. It’s always been Hale property.” Well that certainly made a lot more sense than having it just be under a random building. 

Stiles was looking around the basement, but there didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary. There was the regular old junk, some maintenance supplies, some cleaning things, a couple of washers and dryers, a boiler and all that regular basement stuff. No vault. Well, unless the vault was hiding behind that door Peter just opened. The placement of the big rumbling angry-looking boiler right in front of that door was definitely not an accident. Even if it did mean the door couldn't be opened completely. 

“I don't agree with Laura on letting a teenager we know next to nothing about into a room filled with all this information. So I'm going to warn you now once and for all. This vault can only be opened by a werewolf. Trying to trick the lock will just end in an incredible amount of pain for you.” The smile on Peter’s face in the poorly-lit basement told Stiles the werewolf wouldn't at all mind seeing him go through that ‘incredible amount of pain’. 

“Look, dude, this wasn't my idea. Didn't I already tell you how much I don't want to be here with you right now? Because I really don't. Also, contrary to popular belief I do have some morals. Breaking into a private place like this isn't something I would do.” But Peter gave him a deadpan look in reply. “Without… Like a really really good reason,” Stiles amended. 

“Just turn around,” Peter said, quickly putting an end to any more babbling Stiles could've done. Stiles did but not without rolling his eyes. What did it matter if he wouldn't be able to open the damn thing anyway? But he wasn't about to aggravate a werewolf any time soon. No sir. 

He turned back around when he heard the scrape of the door over the floor, the creaking of the hinges. He was just in time to see Peter slipping inside. Though he still wasn't really looking forward to being confined in a small room with Peter, he just took a deep breath and followed. If this room really held so many books on the supernatural he just had to get inside. This would be his most trustworthy source of information, Scott needed him to get in here. 

As soon as he was inside, Peter shoved a small pile of books in his arms. “These are my sister’s journals. You can study those in your own time.” But Stiles stopped listening in favour of letting his awe overtake him. He was expecting a small messy room with piles of books everywhere, just sitting there gathering dust. He thought they would have to sort through an unorganized heap of books so old the titles had faded from the covers. But nooo. 

This was a library. A freaking library. The walls were all lined with shelves, from the floor to the ceiling. There was even a ladder to reach the top shelf. In the right corner, next to the entrance, there was a large desk with an ancient-looking computer on it. On the left there were two comfy armchairs, complete with quilted blankets. The rest of the room was filled with bookshelves, there were four of those in the middle of the room, low enough that Stiles would still be able to look over them, so, low enough as to not feel crowded. 

“Stiles!” Peter snapped his fingers in front of Stiles’ eyes to get his attention. “You’ll be allowed to take one of the journals home. Only one at a time.” The ‘ _ there will be hell to pay if something happens to it’ _ was strongly implied. “Now take them upstairs so I don’t have to let you into the vault every time you need a new one. Then come back here, we’ve got things to do.” 

“Why do I need to do the heavy lifting and the running up stairs thing? You’re the one who’s supernaturally strong and fast!” If he wasn’t holding the journals, he would be gesturing wildly.

Peter flashed his eyes. “Exactly, I’m really strong and fast, Stiles. I thought that was reason enough for you to do as I asked.” And well… Stiles had nothing to say to that.

 

He’d half expected Peter to have locked him out by the time he came back down, but the door was still ajar. He wormed his way inside again and found Peter frowning at the bulky computer screen, the tell-tale whirring sound of old technology coming from the thing. 

“You, get this thing to work.” Peter said, clearly already fed up with the machine as he impatiently shoved the chair from underneath the desk. Stiles’ eyes followed Peter incredulously as the guy went to roam the shelves again. 

“Weren’t you supposed to show me around?” 

“Right, of course. Stiles, here are the books, there is the computer. Make it work.” Peter said, not even stopping to look at Stiles. Half an hour later, Stiles had somehow managed to get the thing to start up at least. “That took you long enough.” 

“You know what? Next time we find a fossil you can be the one to revive it.” He finally made his way to the only file folder on the computer. There were only a couple of text documents, that each took 10 minutes to open. “You don’t actually expect me to work on this thing, right?” Stiles asked when finally all eight files were opened. In that time, Peter had had to leave the room and go kick some junk around in the actual basement simply because he was losing his patience.

“What do you suggest then?” It came out more as a growl, reminding him again that the werewolf he was stuck with wasn’t exactly known for his control. 

“Oh, I don’t know, Peter. Maybe take a teeny tiny bit of that Hale fortune you mentioned to bribe a gnome to do this for us?”

“Gnomes and technology don’t mix together.” Peter replied seriously, while trying to scroll through the second document. 

“Then just buy a new computer!” Stiles shouted while gesturing to the screen that had started to blink to black and blue and back to normal again. “Maybe one with parts that are still being produced! Or here’s an idea, one with internet access! Or maybe simply one that doesn’t have a freaking  _ floppy disk drive _ !” 

“Oh I’m sorry I didn’t keep up with all the computer tech in the last few years. I know it’s not a very good excuse, but you know, I was in a coma.” 

“Fine! We’ll go get a laptop tomorrow, and I’ll ask Danny to get the files off of this hard drive for us.”

“They’re already on these.” Peter said as he handed Stiles eight floppy disks. One disk for each file. Oh, how he appreciated USB sticks and cloud storage.

Stiles chose to take a calming breath instead of ranting about this any more. “Look, you’ve already proven your amount of patience is too limited to deal with this. So what can we do today that doesn’t involve the dinosaur?” 

“Our bestiary was lost in the fire. We need to make a new one. They were making a digital version, as you can see, but well, I guess I know now why it took them so long.” Peter said as if it was nothing. 

“A  _ bestiary _ ? Oh my god, that is so cool! You mean I’m going to learn about all the things that go bump in the night? I’m totally going to be the real-life Newt Scamander!” Peter shook his head in disbelief, clearly still not agreeing with his alpha making him take Stiles under his wing for this. 

He took a couple of notepads and pens from a drawer in the desk and threw them in Stiles’ direction. “We’ll have to go through most of these books to get a complete bestiary. I hope you’re ready to devote the rest of your life to this. We’ll get a laptop tomorrow, for now, just start reading. There are probably a couple of sources for everything, so make sure you note down the books with the information you put down, if different sources say different things—”

“I know how to do research. But I am not doing it with freaking pen and paper.”

 

After Stiles got his laptop, then realised  there was no way to get an internet connection in the vault, they spent the rest of the night up in the loft reading. He made a searchable database instead of a series of text documents because really… 

He’d never thought he’d say this, but it was actually comfortable there with Peter. Stiles wouldn’t call it  _ fun _ , but it wasn’t bad either. Sure, Peter treated Stiles like he was the werewolf’s underpaid assistant, making him fetch tea and cookies every once in a while, but it was totally worth it. Stiles was learning so much. All these creatures, all these types of magic, all these rituals and customs. It was like discovering a whole new world with all types of incredible people with all kinds of new and exciting cultures to learn about.

Stiles had no idea where the time had gone because it was almost 1 am when Laura and Derek returned, both looking exhausted and irritated. That couldn’t be good. Stiles jumped up from his comfy armchair by the window. “Where’s Scott?” 

“What are you still doing here?” Derek retorted instead of just answering Stiles’ question.

“We dropped him off at home and had a talk with Miss McCall,” Laura answered with a sigh as she let herself fall on the couch. 

Stiles’ eyes went wide at that. “No way, you told Melissa about the whole werewolf thing?” All Laura could muster up as reply was a short nod. “And you’re both still alive?” Stiles’ voice went higher than it had ever gone before at the end of that sentence. Both Laura and Derek actually gave him a little chuckle at that. 

“I’m sure there are still some splinters in Derek’s head from that baseball bat.” Laura said teasingly, with that conspiratory and mischievous look siblings tend to give each other every once in a while. 

“Shut up, you still have to pay her back for putting a dent in those pans.” Derek replied with a loving shove to her shoulder. 

Laura grumbled. “I still say it’s not fair to make me pay when she was the one to hit me in the head with them. Repeatedly.” Stiles burst out laughing, feeling pride surge through him at the thought of Melissa beating up not one, but two werewolves.

“So, what happened with the Argents?”

“Well, loverboy isn’t too happy, but I honestly can’t talk about that right now. You’ll have to ask him about that,” Laura said as she closed her eyes and curled up on the couch, leaning into Derek’s side. Her brother pulled her closer and breathed deeply when his nose found its way to her hair. “We have a treaty. On paper at least. It’s decent, it’s fair.” 

“But?” Stiles asked, not being satisfied with half-truths. 

“But I don’t trust that Gerard guy for a second. If he ever approaches you or Scott, you call one of us right away, do you understand?” She opened her eyes for that part, flashing them red as if her words wouldn’t be enough to get her point across. Stiles had to swallow at that look being directed at him, unable to do anything but nod in agreement.

“Go home now, Stiles, go to bed. Text me to let me know you arrived okay,” Laura said, nestling into Derek, looking like she’d fall asleep the second Stiles left the room. “Oh, and meet us at Boyd’s diner for breakfast at 10. We’re going to train Scott—you and Peter can do some more research.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> Leave some kudos/comments on your way out to let me know what you think :D  
> as always, you can find me on [tumblr](http://bilienski.tumblr.com/), leave me some prompts for shorter things every once in a while, I'd love to keep adding to my series of sterek ficlets and ideas are always more than welcome <3
> 
> Next chapter should be up in two weeks, so February 25th :D


	6. Meeting the Hales

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to [Junglejelly](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Junglejelly), [Lonaargh](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Lonaargh), and [xlogophile](http://archiveofourown.org/users/xlogophile) for being great betas <3

When he got home from his research session with Peter, he was just going to read a little bit. Just to get started on the diaries, like Laura had asked him to. To get acquainted with the Hales and their history and what on earth his mother had to do with all of that. But reading this was… different. Different than anything he’d ever read before. Because it was  _ real _ . These people were real, everything that happened had actually happened. He was reading about things Laura and Derek and Peter probably still remembered. About  _ people _ they remembered, people they wouldn’t talk about.  

It felt like he was intruding, even though Laura had told him to read this, it felt like he was breaking some sort of rule by doing it. Some passages were easy, things like how they made a treaty with a couple of nymphs, things about the gnomes that lived in the caves on the edge of the forest. But some passages were hard to read, even for him. There was a passage where Talia just wrote about her mother asking her to take over the alpha power. Or passages where she talked about being pregnant, about raising her kids, about Peter getting married, about a fight she had with Elliot because they didn’t spend enough time together, about how she struggled sometimes with being a mother and an alpha and about how amazing it was being both. 

He felt like he was meeting all these people. Derek, Laura, Peter, Talia, Elliot, but also people no one had ever even mentioned to him before. Derek’s little sister Cora. Peter’s wife Selena, their children Jonathan and Elizabeth. But Jonathan couldn’t pronounce his sister’s name, so it got shortened to Lizzie, and Lizzie didn’t think it was fair Jonathan got to change hers so he became Nate. Stiles didn’t even know Talia and Peter had another sister, but he met her too. Anna was the eldest but had no desire to become alpha when their mother, Eleanor, would pass on the torch. 

It was all too personal. These were people Stiles had never even heard of before, or people he’d only known for a very brief period of time, yet here he was reading about their deepest thoughts and emotions. He was learning secrets he had no right to learn. And most of all, he felt like he was taking this from Laura and Derek and Peter. These were their people, their memories, they deserved to read the words of their mother, sister, alpha. They deserved to be the ones to discover the  _ love _ for her pack, her family, written in the spaces between every word, between every line, in the little heart she drew instead of an o in Cora’s name, in the way she complained about their habits but always came back to describing their strengths, their kindness, all the reasons why she was proud of them. 

Any decent human being would feel wrong reading something like that without the permission of the writer. Stiles had nothing to do with the Hales or this book and yet he couldn’t stop reading. Not because Laura had asked him to do this for her—if that had been his reason, he’d have put the journal down after reading the first 10 pages. It wasn’t even really his curiosity. Sure, he wanted to know his best friend’s pack, and there was a certain joy in knowing that Derek always stole the plush toys of his sisters and cousins to hoard them in his own room. But it was the tiny things that made Stiles feel he was somehow connected to the life written on these pages that made him continue reading. 

His mom. She was everywhere. Mostly her name was just a mention, throughout Talia’s day-to-day life. But she was  _ there _ . His mom was there in the mention of a phone call, a letter, a Christmas card. Her name was right there, in Talia’s cursive handwriting, in leatherbound books, in journals that people had cherished for years. Cherished them so much they put them in a  _ vault _ . Someone out there other than him and his dad had loved her enough to write about her at least once a week, thought a phone call to her was worth mentioning in a diary, thought a Christmas card from her was special enough to include it in the journal, envelope and all so it wouldn’t get any creases. 

How was Stiles supposed to close the book when every page showed him his mom, when every mention of her name proved him how alive and real she’d been? It had been almost seven years since she’d died, and Stiles had been so young. Sometimes… Sometimes he just couldn’t remember certain things. Sometimes she just seemed so far away, like a dream he’d nearly forgotten instead of an actual memory. But here she was. She’d started out as someone who only got brief mentions, but halfway in, Talia was writing about Claudia’s thoughts on the supernatural, about Claudia’s advice on who to trust. 

Stiles had to stop reading there. Because his mom had known. Had known about everything. For seven years, he’d tried his damnedest to do things that would get him closer to his mom somehow. He’d taken up drawing, he’d taken up swimming, he’d sat on her window seat for hours upon hours, reading books she used to read. Yet none of that had really worked. Who’d have known it would take meeting a pack of werewolves to feel close to his mom. He chuckled softly at the thought of his mom being involved with the Hale pack. Of course his mom would somehow get him a werewolf babysitter. 

 

During the pack breakfast the following morning, Stiles had a really tough time paying attention. Mainly because he'd barely had three hours of sleep but also because he kept thinking about the journal. The fact that he was lost in his own head didn't go unnoticed of course. Not like you needed werewolf senses to realize Stiles was being quiet for once. 

“Sorry, didn't get a lot of sleep,” he apologised for the fourth time when Scott kicked him under the table. 

“Yeah, me neither,” Scott said, clearly looking fed up. “Because I have to tell Allison about werewolves myself! Now if you could just focus for once then maybe I would be able to stop freaking out!” he called Stiles out. 

“Wait, what?” Well that sure got Stiles’ attention. “They're letting you date their daughter?” 

“Dude, it's not cool that you sound so surprised at that. You're my best friend! You're supposed to think I'm a catch!”

“Considering the whole hunter-werewolf thing going on, I think we can all agree Allison and her family would think you’re a great catch.” Apart from a small snort from Peter, the only reaction his little joke got was everyone tensing up. “Okay, got it, dog jokes aren't funny yet acceptable and hunters are completely out of bounds. No laughing matter. So, what do we think their play is here?”

“Play?” Scott asked, shoving another piece of omelette in his mouth. 

“Look, buddy, I truly love you and any girl or guy would be lucky to have you. But you can't tell me there's nothing fishy about hunters letting their daughter date a werewolf, right? A newly turned werewolf at that, they aren't even sure if you have control yet!”

“Laura told them about the secure room where they can chain me up,” Scott shrugged his shoulders, as if that should explain everything. 

“Who suggested it?” Stiles had decided Scott was a useless source on this topic, so he directed his question to the other side of the table instead, leaving it up to either Laura or Derek to answer. Not like it would be a great mystery to guess who would use their words in a social interaction. 

“It was Gerard,” Laura said, with a careful look cast in Derek’s direction. “But Victoria looked absolutely furious when he said it.”

“Gerard is the guy you don't trust. Why?” 

“What? He was the nicest! He was the only one who didn't show off his gun from the moment we got in.” Oh sweet innocent naive little Scott. Stiles really needed to get him to watch more crime movies. 

Surprisingly, for once it wasn't Stiles who had to explain it to Scott. Laura did, after clearing her throat and sitting up a little straighter. “That's why he seemed off. The rest of them all acted like we'd expected them to. Victoria was by far the most hostile one and Chris wasn't exactly thrilled about having us on his turf either, but he was able to listen to logic. He didn't like us being there and if we had come uninvited he wouldn't have hesitated to kill us. But he listened to our proposal and argued with me till we came to an agreement. Which is the best scenario we could've hoped for.”

“But Gerard was ready to agree to your initial proposal, he didn't even want to argue!”

“It wasn't a realistic one, Scott. It basically said that we could do whatever we wanted to the people in our own pack,” Laura butted in. “Gerard was too welcoming, he seemed very naive about everything. Maybe that's just old age but honestly I don't for one second believe that the Argents would let anything endanger a treaty like this. If Gerard had grown too soft, Victoria wouldn’t have let him sit in on this, she wouldn’t have let him be there if she thought he wouldn’t be able to deal with this rationally. It just doesn’t add up.”

“The fact that he didn't show his gun doesn't mean he didn't have one. And the most effective weapon is always the one the enemy can't see,” Peter said with a dangerous knowing glint in his eyes. “And are you really not going to point out the obvious here? Because if you ask me, this would be the perfect moment to share. Derek?” He prompted. Stiles felt chills going down his spine at seeing Peter’s expression. The same taunting smile, the same mean glint in his eyes as bullies always got when they knew they had their victim right where they wanted them. 

“No,” Laura growled lowly at her uncle, making him back off. The sound even made Scott flinch. “This isn’t the same. And this will be the last time you try to bring this up, Peter, do you understand?” Stiles wanted to run for the hills. Damn, Laura could be scary.

He was so focused on the stare down between Laura and Peter that he barely even heard it when Derek mumbled “I need some air,” right before leaving the table. 

They all kept their eyes on Derek as he went outside. Laura sighed and rubbed her forehead as Stiles hesitantly broke the silence. “So… I hate to be that guy, because clearly this is some sort of family thing going on here, but if it’s the reason why you think Gerard is so dangerous then may—”

“No. I’ve been honest with both of you. I don’t trust Gerard. Sure, there’s history there, but I don’t think it applies to our current situation. I told you all you need to know about this guy. We have our own personal reasons for not trusting anyone from that family. Let’s just drop the topic,” Laura said, that edge of authority and finality in her voice that just made her seem like a leader. The same tone Lydia had in her voice whenever Stiles was graced with having her actually talk to him, the same way Jackson sounded when he was doing his whole captaining thing.

“How is your mother doing?” Laura immediately changed the topic, her eyes caring, looking attentively at Scott. And shoot, Stiles was a horrible friend. How could he not have asked about that? 

Scott shrugged, looking down at his cup of coffee. “I didn’t see her this morning.”  _ Oh no _ … not  _ “she was already on shift”  _ or  _ “she was doing groceries when I got up” _ . Stiles laid a supportive hand on Scott’s shoulder and squeezed a little.

“She loves you, bro.” Stiles knew better than to make promises he couldn’t keep. Someone saying  _ “it’ll be fine, it’ll work out” _ could only do so much. “And she beat up two werewolves for you!” Distract the puppy from the hurt, never failed Stiles before. 

“Dude, it was so awesome!” Scott started, his eyes wide with excitement. “So Laura was all like ‘we’re werewolves and Scott’s one too now’ and then she flashed her eyes and showed her claws. To prove it, you know? And then my mom just grabbed the dirty pan from the countertop and she kept hitting Laura till they were out of the kitchen so she could grab the baseball bat in the hallway, you know?” 

Stiles was nodding along the whole time. “And then Derek growled because he’s stupid and he doesn’t know my mom,” When Stiles took a quick glance at Laura she was rolling her eyes, but still looking on with a fond smile on her face. “And she just smashed that baseball bat over his head so hard the thing splintered! The baseball bat, not Derek’s head,” Scott sounded almost disappointed with that last unnecessary explanation. 

Laura smiled indulgently at Scott. “If we can train you to be half as good a fighter as your mom, we’d be proud.” 

“I thought you were just going to teach me how to control the shift?” Scott asked.

“You need to be able to defend yourself and your pack. It’s not because you can suddenly grow claws and fangs that you can use them in a fight. And even so, it won’t be just hunters we need to defend ourselves from, there are plenty of people out there with sharper claws and deadlier fangs than you,” Laura explained, her shoulders held more stiffly when she got serious. It’s the little tells like that, her shoulders, the way she cleared her throat before explaining things, the way she tried to appear taller or how she carefully set a frown in place. It’s all those things that made Stiles think Laura wasn’t at all used to being this serious, that she was trying to be more like someone else in moments like that. As if she didn’t trust herself to be good enough at this whole alpha thing yet. 

They were screwed. All of them. A newly turned puppy — they had literally called him a puppy! —, an emotionally constipated wreck who couldn’t get over whatever it was the Argents did in the past, a homicidal out of control werewolf, an insecure alpha who was flying by the seat of her pants and a human whose only weapon he could wield consisted of sarcastic remarks. Stiles couldn’t think of an easier target for hunters or whatever else wanted to harm them. They were absolutely and utterly screwed.

 

Derek didn’t show up again during breakfast, he was already at the loft when everyone else got there. He was baking, had just put something in the oven by the looks of it, but he didn’t look up from what he was doing to greet them. No surprises there. 

“So how are we going to do this? I didn’t exactly bring workout clothes,” Scott said, awkwardly standing in the middle of the loft.

“We’re going to the woods where the only thing you can break are trees,” Laura answered, which got Scott and Stiles to perk up with excitement. 

“I can break trees?”

“Just how strong are you guys?” Stiles asked at the same time. 

Laura just rolled her eyes and motioned for Scott to follow her up the stairs. “I’ll give you some of Derek’s old clothes for today, that okay?” 

Great, so now Stiles was left alone with creeper Peter and even-quieter-than-usual Derek. Still, it was pretty easy to choose who to try to have a conversation with. “So…” He stretched out the word as he sat down on a barstool and leaned on the bar, trying to look past Derek’s impressively broad back to see what he was fiddling with. “What are you baking?”

Stiles was sure that if it had somehow been possible for Derek to tense up more, he would have. “It smells really good,” he tried, but Derek still didn’t react, didn’t even turn around to glare at Stiles, which was definitely a first. 

“It’s been ages since I had some warm cookies straight out of the oven. Melissa only ever bakes cupcakes.” Stiles shared, apparently to an unhearing audience, but he was going to get Derek to react goddamnit. “Do you think you could teach me?” Oh there was Derek’s face! He turned around and there wasn’t even a glare, just raised eyebrows. “Maybe not how to bake though, I’m sure my dad gets his hand on way too many baked goods as it is. Miss Margaret from down the street has a little crush on him, I keep telling him it’s the uniform, you know? I’m pretty sure that if he stopped treating his uniform as if it’s his only acceptable outfit, the ladies wouldn’t be slipping him sweet little heart attacks in the form of red velvet cupcakes,” Yep, now Stiles was on a roll, try to stop him rambling now!

“Could you teach me how to make him healthy lunchboxes and dinners that don’t literally taste like rabbit food? Because I honestly suck at cooking. I can’t even blame my dad for ordering in all the time. Although I do make a great pasta pesto, but that’s hardly a craft,” How it still surprised people that he could vomit out such a long string of words out of nowhere, was honestly a mystery to Stiles. 

“His cholesterol is through the roof and he’s Catherine Tate levels not bothered by it. But if I could actually make him healthy stuff that tastes good, maybe he won’t have to sneakily call for some pizza when he thinks I’ve already gone to bed. So yes, could you teach me all you know? Except for those mashed potatoes we had yesterday,” oh, that made Derek glare.

“Not because they weren’t good, because they were amazing. Really those were too good to be healthy. Tasting just that teeny bit like pure heaven, all smooth and buttery and really, the last thing my dad’s diet needs is more butter. So let’s just not. But please don’t let that stop you from making more for me. All I’m saying is, don’t teach me how to make that because my dad can’t get a taste of it, okay?” To Stiles’ surprise, Derek actually nodded. 

He even answered with a complete word. “Okay.” 

“Okay? Okay you’ll make me more of that mashed potato heaven? Or okay you won’t let my dad get a taste of it? Or okay you’ll tea— mmmfrbl,” Derek was apparently so fed up with the rambling that he thought shoving a cookie in Stiles’ mouth was the only possible way to save himself. “Oh. My. God!” Stiles moaned around the glorious taste in his mouth. 

“If you think that this sort of abuse will deter me from talking your ears off in the future, you are sorely mistaken. Because oh my  _ God _ .” 

“Fine, next time I’ll spritz you with water.” 

Stiles blinked at that, because did Derek just make a joke? 

 

Right then Laura and Scott came back down and dragged Derek away with them. Before Stiles was allowed to join them, he had to set up the laptop Peter had purchased. Which was boring, it involved a lot of waiting for updates and god-knows-what, and if there was one thing Stiles really sucked at it was waiting. Then again, the fact that Peter and Stiles got to the training two hours after it had started, probably helped to make it look so spectacular, because Laura, Derek and Scott were already on a roll when they arrived. 

Although Scott was mostly just swinging his arms around and slashing at whatever was within reach. There wasn’t really a lot of technique going on yet, let alone any teamwork between Derek and Scott. It took Stiles ten minutes to even realize it was supposed to be Laura against Scott and Derek. But to be fair, Stiles wouldn’t have wanted to bet his money on whether they could even get Scott agree to this whole training business. Before today, Stiles wouldn’t have been able to picture Scott fighting anybody or anything. So, in that way today probably still counted as a win. And the puppy was already able to shift at will and hold the shift back when it was pushing at his control. The concept of which Stiles barely grasped, but it sounded positive, right? Laura looked actually quite proud of it, and Derek didn’t look completely pissed off.

They stayed in the forest for a while longer. While the werewolves tried to claw literal pieces out of each other, Stiles read a bit more in Talia’s journal. Till at last, Laura called it quits and Stiles and Scott finally had a bit of time just the two of them. Between the whole werewolf stuff and Scott falling in love, they hadn’t really had a lot of time to just hang out. So they went to get some burgers and curly fries to munch on while playing Mario Kart. 

“You never told me though, why do you have to be the one to tell Allison about your furry problem?” Stiles asked, having just started another race. 

“I don’t know, that’s just the deal. I can only keep seeing her if I’m honest with her,” Scott shrugged, his eyes still focused on the game. “I guess they think I’m going to freak her out so badly that she doesn’t want to be with me anymore. I don’t know, man…” He finished with a sigh.

“And who made that deal with you?” Really, Stiles didn’t  _ want _ to be the paranoid bastard all the time, but if Scott was always going to be so naive, he didn’t have another choice but to be suspicious of everything. 

“Well it was Gerard who wasn't completely opposed to us dating. Then Chris convinced Victoria to compromise I guess. Although I have no idea how he did that… She's terrifying.”

“Gerard had no objections at all?”

“Not really. He thought it was good. Said something to Laura about “ _ putting that nasty past of misunderstandings behind us” _ . Honestly he just seemed like a kind grandpa really. It was her parents who gave me the creeps mostly,” Scott shivered as if trying to shake the creeps off of him. “God, it was so awkward. It was like I was asking for their daughter’s hand in marriage or something.” 

“Oh, shut up,” Stiles bumped his shoulder against Scott’s. “It’s not like you don’t already have a jar with change to save up for her engagement ring.” 

 

While Stiles spent most of his time setting up the bestiary with Peter, Scott trained with the Hales almost every day. He wanted to make sure to be in complete and utter control before he told Allison just how much of a puppy he actually was. 

 

The Argents, however, already had perfect control and Gerard would do anything to make sure it stayed that way. As long as they were in control all he had to do was bide his time. After all, that little group of failed youths could hardly be called a pack. It sure wasn't worth getting into a fight, he was too old for fighting. Too weak right now, but he'd get the power he deserved soon enough. He just had to keep an eye on Allison. 

Although… even that could be put into the capable hands of someone else if he played his cards right. That's how he found himself abandoning his favourite comfortable armchair by the window in his room. It was time to have a couple words with the thing hiding in the bushes. 

He walked out of the house and stopped in front of his car, opening the trunk as if he was just coming to grab something. “Don't you get cold sitting out here every night?” He asked, loud and clear enough so he didn't have to look at the bushes, the neighbors probably wouldn't like the idea of the old man from next door going insane. 

“Don't come out, I know you're there. You're just watching over Allison aren’t you?” He made a point of taking a hunting rifle out of the trunk to inspect it carefully in the little light of the car. “I appreciate that. She needs someone looking after her and I just can't be with her all the time. Although I don't think she'd like the idea of being watched so closely, even if it was for her own safety.” He put the gun back down and started rummaging through a box instead. 

“She has a boyfriend now, you know?” Gerard picked the box out of the trunk, holding it under one arm. “I don't think he's good for her, I wouldn't trust him to watch over her like you do anyway. Why don't you keep an eye on him for a bit?” He closed the trunk and walked back to the house. “When you find something unsettling don't hesitate to share it with me, or let Allison know discreetly. Just be careful she doesn't see you and if you really look after my granddaughter then we’ll have no trouble staying friends, right?” 

And the bushes answered politely, “I won't let you down, sir.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I do suck at chapter titles u.u but at least I didn't go with "Argent you creepy?" so... baby steps and all that.
> 
> Hope you liked it! Leave some kudos/comments if you did <3 or come say hi on [Tumblr](http://bilienski.tumblr.com)
> 
> As always, the next chapter should be up in 2 weeks so March 11th :D See you then!


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